Mind over Matter
by Plot Hole Digger
Summary: AoSTH. Dr. Robotnik has created a weapon that can swap the mind of an individual with another mind of his choosing, and only Sonic & Tails can stop it. Unfortunately, after an accident with the weapon, they aren't quite feeling themselves...literally!
1. A Cunning Plan

_**AN: **_**Hello, people! This the first chapter of my first story, and I'm nervous as all heck! :) Its just a little Sonic story set in the AOSTH universe. I hope you enjoy!**

**DISCLAIMER: I, Plot Hole Digger, own nothing of Sonic the Hedgehog. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is copyright SEGA and DIC (and another company that I can't recall).**

**Also, I want to thank DC111 for being so kind to beta read the first bunch of chapters and offering advice to make things better.**

_**Mind over Matter**_

**Chapter One: A Cunning Plan**

All was peaceful as the warm, tangerine coloured sun poked out from behind the vast peaks of Mount Mobius, spreading light over all that the beams came into contact with. Flower petals floated gently on a soft spring breeze, twisting gracefully through the air as they were carried over a series of rolling green hills, the crisp grass billowing softly beneath the wind.

The Planet of Mobius was a truly remarkable sight, particularly when spring was looming on the horizon. Unfortunately, not many people were able to appreciate nature much – not since the arrival of Dr. Robotnik all those years ago. No one knew quite where he came from, and even fewer cared. All they knew was that his desire for complete and total World Domination was absolute.

He almost would have succeeded too, if not for the intervention of a high-speed blue hedgehog with an attitude named Sonic.

No matter how many times he tried, nothing that the doctor could envision was able to trump the sheer speed and intelligence that the hedgehog had been gifted. Every time Robotnik created a new plan, Sonic rushed to the scene and foiled it, sending the mad genius traipsing back to the drawing board amid a flurry of curses.

If Robotnik's calculations were right, however, the latest invention that he had created was going to put a stop to his current losing streak.

Deep within the bowels of his gigantic fortress, complete with an oppressively large golden statue modelled on his own his physique in tribute to himself, the rotund genius worked tirelessly over his workbench. Sweat poured down his long forehead as he twisted a delicate string of wiring through the open hatch of a metal casing, which was shaped like a length of pipe. After the job was complete, he took a second to admire his work.

_Something is missing_, he mused. The doctor raised a podgy, gloved hand to his round chin and frowned. _What could it be? I've followed every instruction to the smallest detail!_

He pondered his predicament for a second more before his gaze fell upon a component lying on the workbench. Robotnik rolled his eyes.

"Of course," he muttered to himself.

Taking the component in his hand, he wedged it firmly inside of the pipe-shaped casing. A satisfying '_BEEP_' sound emanated from the device and a small red light blinked into life. Pleased with the result, he then closed the hatch and welded it shut.

"I've done it," he said to himself, smiling. The doctor raised his hands into the air in triumph, roaring with laughter. "I've finally done it!" he shouted out with glee.

The telltale sound of eavesdroppers at his laboratory door pulled him briefly out if his reverie. Knowing that his mechanical lackeys had already heard everything that he had said, Robotnik grudgingly decided to let them come in. He would punish them later when he had finished gloating over his accomplishment.

"Scratch! Grounder!" he called. "Get in here, now!"

The wooden door swung open with a squeak, allowing the two loyal Badniks to stumble into the room. The tall robot modelled after a rooster, named Scratch, spoke first.

"Uh, you summoned us, your exulted excellence?"

"Yes, I did, and next time I want you to be quick about it!" the evil genius growled, knowing full well that what he had requested was impossible. "I, the great Dr. Robotnik, have finally completed my ultimate weapon to aid me in getting rid of that meddlesome hedgehog!"

He had no shame in allowing a toothy satisfied grin to spread across his face.

Grounder, the smaller robot that bore close resemblance to a tank of some sort, looked confused. "Where is it?" he asked.

The doctor released a sigh. _What did I do to deserve this?_ Apart_ from try and take over the world_, he added hastily.

Robotnik grabbed the recently completed device from his workbench and thrust it into their field of vision. "This is it!" he announce proudly.

The device resembled a short bazooka type weapon, except a small satellite dish had been fastened to the end of it and a series of multicoloured switched ran down its length. Upon pressing a green button, the satellite began to glow with a yellow light, casting eerie shadows of the three individuals against the laboratory's thick stone walls.

Scratch took hold of the gizmo and raised it to his face, closing one eye and using the other to look down the barrel. "Really?" he asked. Though the robot had no real idea as to what its purpose could be, he felt it best to indulge his master. "What does it do?"

"Ah," Robotnik smirked, taking the contraption back into his hands. "Allow me to demonstrate."

He pointed the weapon at Scratch and pulled the trigger. An intense blast of yellow light erupted from the dish and surrounded the chicken Badnik with a ball of energy. The discharge funnelling from the power dish held him in place for a couple of seconds, where a surprised grimace was frozen on his beak.

Robotnik released the trigger, cutting off the energy flow. Though the light had disappeared, Scratch continued to stand in the same position like a statue. Grounder wheeled over to his 'twin' brother and waved an arm in front of his face.

No reaction.

The tank robot gave him a hard whack in the stomach.

Still Scratch didn't react.

Grounder turned back to this master, impressed. "Wow. You've stopper-zapped him!" he gushed.

The doctor smirked once more and raised the weapon again, this time aiming for the remaining robot. "That is only half of what this creation is capable of. Observe!"

The mad scientist fired at Grounder, enveloping him in the same yellow energy and freezing him where he stood. After shutting the device off once again, Robotnik pressed a small red button that was positioned next to the green one. This time, a blue light glowed from the barrel dish.

_Let's see what this contraption can really do_, he thought eagerly to himself.

Robotnik blasted Scratch first and then Grounder with the bazooka. He lowered the weapon and watched as the robotic rooster began to stir. The Badnik shook his head and tried to stop the world from spinning.

"What just happened?" he groaned.

He made an attempt to stand, but quickly lost his balance and fell to the floor of his master's lab with a loud crash. The robot turned to look at the cause of the problem and noticed something different about his appearance.

He had legs.

"What's going on?" he squawked. The harsh sound of his voice caused him to raise a hand to his beak in shock. "That's not my voice! Why do I sound different?" He ran his fingers across his face. "Why do I have a beak?"

Robotnik laughed heartily at the display before him. Sympathy was not something that he extended to anyone, least of all the two metallic morons that had made his professional career as menacing dictator so stressful.

Grounder soon recovered also, and checked his own body with similar trepidation. He was shocked to see that he was shorter, and now had two treadmills in place of his more fmailiar limbs. The two Badniks turned to face each other, causing both of their jaws to drop.

"Hey!" Grounder yelled in panic. "What am I doing over there?"

"You? What am _I_ doing over _there_?" retorted Scratch.

"Isn't it obvious?" Robotnik yelled, unable to contain himself any longer. "Both of your so-called 'brains' have been switched! Scratch's mind now controls Grounder's body, and Grounder's mind is now in command of Scratch's body!"

The two Badniks stared at each other in horror before throwing themselves at their master's feet, grovelling in tandem.

"Please, sir, be merciful!" they whimpered in unison, pointing fingers at each other. "I don't want to spend the rest of my life as _him_! We want to be changed back!"

The evil genius raised the weapon toward his useless servants. "What a pity. I was rather enjoying that display of misery," he murmured before firing at them again.

The weapon blasted a light blue energy ray at the two distressed robots. After pressing the green button again, the colour of the beam changed back to its original sunflower yellow. Scratch and Grounder checked their bodies and exhaled a collective sigh of relief. Everything was back to where it should be.

"Now that the demonstrations are over," Robotnik chuckled, a glint in his cold black eyes. "Allow me to present my new and most ingenious invention. Behold; the 'Egg-O-Matic Brain Scrambler and Mind Swapper' – the device that will grant me control over all of Mobius!"

"Wow! That thing must be pretty powerful for something so small if it can do that!" Grounder said.

Scratch nodded in agreement. "Yeah! So, how are we going to do this? Go to every mobian's house and use it on them door-to-door?"

"No, you Dunce-Bots!" the mad scientist bellowed, coating the faces of both robots with a fine film of saliva. "This one is just a prototype. I intend to build an even bigger Mind Scrambler – one that is capable of affecting the entire planet in one glorious blow!"

He caressed the weapon lovingly. "After I have extracted everyone's minds and stored them away, I will then download new brain patterns into every mobian's head, instructing them to obey only me!" He snickered at the thought of it. Sometimes, he was so evil that even _he_ didn't like him!

"Then why did you build the handheld version, your maliciousness?" Scratch wondered. Robotnik shot him a glare that could cut through granite.

"If Sonic was to find out about my scheme, imbecile, he would no doubt attempt to stop me, and it will take some time to complete my global model of the weapon. What I want you to do-" he handed the device over to Scratch "-is to track that hedgehog down and make sure that he won't interrupt me before its ready!"

Scratch fumbled with the weapon in his grip, almost dropping it before Robotnik rushed over to steady it.

"And be careful!" he hissed. "This machine is very delicate, and the slightest disruption could prove hazardous! Now go, before I extract your minds and use your heads as a pair of trays where I can keep my paperclips!"

The Badniks saluted clumsily, all too aware of their master's intention to follow through on his threat.

"You can count on us, sir!" Scratch said as they prepared to leave.

"Yeah! We'll have that hedgehog in no time!" chimed Grounder. Once they were gone, the would-be dictator raised a hand to his face and groaned.

_Yet again, I place my scheme into the hands of those two incompetents!_ He shook his head. _Why do I never learn?_

_**(End Chapter)**_

_**AN: **_**And there we go! Kinda short, ain't it? Well, because you're all such good sports, I'm going to upload the second chapter straight away!**


	2. A Much Needed Break

_**AN: **_**Hah! Told you. Here's the second chapter. Hope you enjoy!**

_**Mind over Matter**_

**Chapter Two: A Much Needed Break**

"Come on, Tails! Keep up! I know you can do it, buddy!" Sonic the Hedgehog yelled to his pint-sized companion.

The small, twin-tailed fox with brown and white fur looked over toward the blue blur that was currently tearing up the cracked soil beneath his pounding feet, and sighed as best as his lungs would let him.

"I'm trying, Sonic!" he panted.

The hedgehog ahead of him gave a quick thumbs-up in return and focused his attention back on the path ahead, once again leaving the young cub lagging behind. Tails' heart pounded furiously against his ribcage, threatening to burst through at any second. Why he had ever suggested this in the first place was beyond him.

It had seemed like a sound plan at the time: Robotnik was keeping quiet as of late, so Tails had thought that it would be a good idea for the two heroes to step up his own training schedule, figuring that the sooner he could join Sonic in battle properly the better. For the first couple of days, things had been okay. Sure there were times when he got tired, but never as bad as now – three weeks later, running yet another hundred miles across the vast Mobius Salt Plains.

_Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all_, the fox chastised himself.

Tails couldn't help but be aware of every individual step that his feet made on the hard surface of the ground, thumping rhythmically with the frantic pulsing in his chest. Each time one of his shoes made contact, a jolt of pain would shoot through his leg, causing him to suppress a wince. Things wouldn't have been so bad if he was able to use his tails for an additional boost, but Sonic had told him not to. After all, how was he supposed to improve if he remained in his comfort zone?

He ground his teeth together as more discomfort rocketed up his limbs. He was exhausted, but he wouldn't tell his older brother.

_What would Sonic say if I just gave up?_, he thought to himself. The respect of his best friend in the whole wide world meant more to him than anything, and he didn't want to risk disappointing him.

The fox swallowed some saliva, attempting to lubricate his dry throat. As much as he hated to admit it, if he didn't stop soon he would be sick. Gingerly, he eased the thudding of his sneakers and slowed to a gradual halt.

Sonic breathed a large sigh of contentment as he continued his jog. To him, there was nothing more relaxing in this world than to run across the mobian countryside, taking in the various sights, sounds, smells, and people that populated his home planet. Not to mention the ongoing mission that he had to personally find and devour the best Chilli Dog known to hedgehog-kind.

His stomach rumbled at the thought of a jumbo frank, slathered in spicy chilli and wrapped inside the blanket of a warm, lightly toasted bread roll. It was almost too much to take.

_Speaking of which_, he thought to himself, _I wonder if Tails is feeling hungry too_.

Sonic quickly dug the heels of his sneakers into the ground, where they scraped across the surface with an ear-splitting '_screech_'. When he turned to face his little bro, however, he was met with an empty space.

"Huh," he said to no one in particular. "I could have sworn he was right behind me."

The hedgehog turned to face the direction that he had come from and started to run on the spot, revving his feet like the engine of a motorbike. "I'd better track back and see if he's alright! Up, over, and gone!" he said, kicking up dust as he exploded through the air with a sonic boom.

Sonic stopped in front of his young sidekick barely a second later. The fox was doubled over and resting his hands upon his knees, breathing heavily. The teen hero placed a caring hand on the cub's shoulder, concerned.

"Hey, pal, are you feeling alright? Was I going too fast for you again?"

"I'm...fine...Sonic," the fox huffed, panting between much needed breaths. "I just needed...a quick break."

"Fine?" Sonic repeated, shaking his head.

Tails had a bad habit of pushing his body to places where it just wasn't prepared to go to yet in order to keep up with him. Sometimes, the hedgehog forgot that his best friend was only four and a half years old, and didn't have as much stamina as he did.

"You ain't fine, little bro – you're pooped! I may not have a lot of experience with being tired, but even I can recognise it when I see it."

"It's okay," Tails said, his lungs finally adjusting to a stable rhythm of air intake. He stood up straight and forced a smile to cross his muzzle. "Really, it's no biggie."

Sonic smirked at the cub. Years of living alongside each other had caused more than a few of the hedgehog's personality traits to rub off on the kid, in particular his stubbornness. There was an easy way to overcome this obstacle, however, which he had discovered some time ago.

"Okay, but I'm starting to feel a little hungry." He removed his hand from Tails' shoulder and rubbed his own groaning stomach to emphasise this point. "What say we find some place to rest and chow down on a couple of Chilli Dogs, huh?"

Much as he predicted, the young kit nodded his head in agreement, feeling relieved that Sonic had wanted to stop. "Sounds good, but where's the nearest place where we can go eat?"

Sonic jerked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing it in the direction that he had been running to before turning back.

"I noticed the outskirts of a pretty big city in that direction. They're bound to have some kind of Chilli Dog stand hanging around somewhere. We've just gotta go find it."

Excited at the prospect of some food and relaxation, Tails felt a small amount of his energy return to him. "Yeah, let's do it, Sonic!"

"Okay!" the blue hero declared. "Just follow me, and you can use your tails this time."

Tails' face fell. Any accumulated energy had now just evaporated on the spot. "Couldn't you just carry me instead? I mean, it would be a lot faster."

"Nice try, bud," Sonic chuckled. "But ya still got a few minutes of training left. What say we race to pass the time, huh? I mean, you're already faster than you were before, seeing how you could keep up on foot when I was jogging at quarter speed."

His words of encouragement seemed to perk up his partner slightly, who smiled.

"And I said you could use your tails, so this should take no time!" Sonic crouched down to check the buckles of his sneakers. "Come on, I'll even give you a head start since you've been doing so good."

Tails jumped up in joy at his brother's proposal and started twisting his tails together, forming a large furry propeller.

"Okay, Sonic! Catch me if you can!"

He pushed with all of his remaining energy, the added force giving him a tremendous boost of speed. As much as he would have liked to be able to keep up on foot, realistically this method was the only way that he could keep up with the self-proclaimed 'fastest thing alive'.

_For the moment at least_, he told himself. _Someday, I'll be just as fast!_

The wind brushed against his face as he soared through the air. Feeling the cool breeze that he was generating against his fur, he began to wonder just how much of a head start he was going to get. A large explosion of noise following on the heels of a blue comet sprinting into the distance answered that question.

Tails frowned and spun his tails faster, increasing momentum. Sweat started to form on his brow from concentration. Great speed didn't come to him as easily as it did his older brother.

_Sometimes, I really wish that Sonic could see what it was like to be me for a day_, the kit thought to himself not for the first time.

Within a matter of seconds, the two mobians arrived at the city limits. Gigantic skyscrapers towered before them, skewering the sky like thin needles made of stone, creating long shadows which blocked out the heat and light from the sun. People of all shapes and sizes walked hurriedly down and across the streets, many of them wearing suits and carrying briefcases, going about the hustle and bustle of suburban life oblivious to anyone who wasn't a part of their schedule.

Tails had never seen anything quite like it. He was aware that Mobius had a few big cities, and had even visited some of them on his travels with Sonic, but he had no idea just how understated the word 'big' would become when applied to the maze of architecture that lay before him.

"Whoa...look at the size of this place!" he exclaimed.

Sonic, on the other hand, wasn't quite so awed. There was something about this city that seemed familiar to him, though he couldn't put his finger on it. He turned his attention to the pavement ahead and decided to ask one of the 'suits' walking toward the two of them for some information.

"Excuse me!" Sonic called, waving a hand in front of him.

No one responded. Frowning, he tried again, louder this time. "Hey! Over here!"

A short, heavyset female giraffe, dressed in a pinstriped suit swivelled her head to face the commotion. Her eyes settled on the two youngsters. "Yes, what is it?" she questioned with an air of impatience.

Sonic scratched a quill and looked her in the eye. "Hi, there," he said pleasantly. "Would you be able to tell us where we are? We were in kind of a rush and we didn't notice any signs on our way in."

The woman stared at the hedgehog incredulously for a second. Then at the fox standing next to him. Then back at the hedgehog.

"Are you serious?" she asked in disbelief. "You really don't know where you are?"

The two heroes shook their heads. The woman couldn't help but feel as though her time was being wasted. Of all the people in this city, why did she have to get the tourists? She decided to keep her answer short and concise.

"You're currently standing in Metropolis City," she told them curtly. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I shall be on my way." The woman turned on her heel and left the two friends alone, grumbling to herself about 'ignorant tourists' and a 'ruined schedule'.

"Nice lady," Sonic remarked, raising an eyebrow. "Metropolis City, huh? Now I remember this place."

"What is it, Sonic?" Tails asked, still confused by the woman's reaction to their question. Sonic directed the cub's gaze to a selection of billboard signs that adorned numerous rooftops, advertising all kinds of media and other products.

"This place is the business capital of Mobius, bro. Didn't you ever wonder where all of your favourite books and stuff came from?"

"Wait, they all came from here?" the fox replied, eyes wide in realisation. "Way cool! Do you think we could see how some of these things are made?"

"Why not?" the hedgehog grinned. "We're on vacation, after all. How about we check around for some place to grab a bite and then we can do whatever you want to do. Deal?"

Sonic extended a hand for a high-five which Tails slapped in return. "Deal! You're the best, Sonic! But, if this place is a business district, then where are we going to find some food?"

"Are you kidding? Everyone needs some downtime, even in a city as busy as Metropolis! I can guarantee that there is an area nearby where all the big shots go to chill." He grabbed his adopted brother's hand. "Now let's go and find it!"

Before another word could pass between them, Sonic took off with Tails in tow, the gale of wind in his wake blowing a large stack of newspapers from their stand two blocks away, much to the vendor's distress.

Meanwhile, as the two freedom fighters were searching for a good spot to rest up, Scratch and Grounder were busy trying to pick up their trail from the skies, using their master's Egg-O-Matic hovercraft. The chicken Badnik piloted as his non-identical twin surveyed the scene below, using a binoculars attachment that had been installed into his arm. The Mind Scrambler rested on the seat beside him, shaking slightly beneath the turbulence.

The tank robot grunted noisily, scowling at his companion sitting in the front seat. "How come I have to be lookout?" he pouted.

Yet again, the older of the two had managed to secure the cushy job of flying the craft, while he was stuck doing the manual labour.

"Because I said so, that's why!" came Scratch's reply. "Besides, I'm the one who's in charge of this operation."

"Nu-uh! I'm the leader!" Grounder argued.

"You?" Scratch snorted. "You couldn't lead a group of lemmings to jump off a cliff if you were pushing them with a bulldozer! Dr. Robotnik _personally_ gave _me_ the Mind Scrambler, and _personally_ told _me_ to deal with the hedgehog." His chest swelled with, what Grounder perceived to be undeserved, pride.

The gadget-loaded robot huffed and folded his arms. "Oh, please. If Dr. Robotnik really wanted the hedgehog to be captured successfully, he would have picked me!"

"Says who?"

"Says me!"

"Is that so?" Scratch snarled through clenched beak, fixing his beady eyes upon his partner in crime. "Okay, wise guy – you asked for it!"

He turned to face his brother, raised his left hand, and brought it down with a colossal '_smack_' over the robot's dome-shaped head. Grounder's eyes swivelled uncontrollably in their sockets, requiring physical assistance to slow them.

A flashing light on the Egg-O-Matic's dashboard prevented any further bickering. Scratch investigated the source of the disturbance, and smirked excitedly.

"The Hedgehog Detector has picked up Sonic's trail! According to this-" he checked the listed coordinates "-he's somewhere in Metropolis city."

Grounder pushed forward to get a closer look, taking care to 'return the favour' from seconds ago by clobbering the chicken robot in the back of the head, sending him beak-first into the dashboard.

"He is?" Grounder asked his half-dazed twin. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's get him!"

Scratch sat up and shoved his brother away from the controls, accidentally pushing the throttle to maximum velocity in the process. The hovercraft pushed through the air at high-speed, erratically bumping against imaginary obstacles as it dragged the flailing, screeching Badniks to their destination.

_**(End Chapter)**_

**AN:****There we go! That's the second one down. If you've made it this far, I really want to thank you for taking the time to check out this story, and I would really like to hear your opinions on it: what you liked, what you didn't like etc. so that I can make sure that everything is cool for the third chapter. Thanks again! :D**


	3. Dropping In Uninvited

_**AN: **_**Wow! Thank you so much to ASHPD, Scyphi, Eternally Ebony, Gamenoise, sonicxjones and TyVulpine for reviewing/adding/faving/doing something with my story! Much appreciated :D I think that's everyone, but if I missed anyone out, I'm sorry. **

**For you lovely people, here is chapter 3 - hope you like!**

_**Mind over Matter**_

**Chapter Three: Dropping**** In Uninvited**

Tails shifted position, allowing his small body to sink further down into the plush, comfortable chair upon which he was sitting. A small sigh of satisfaction escaped his lips. The soft material felt great against his aching body, and the pain in his extremities was beginning to fade away. The young fox allowed his eyes to close as his ears listened to the dull hum of people talking and vehicles moving all around him.

His dozing was quickly interrupted by someone poking at his shoulder with his or her finger. Reluctantly, he opened his heavy eyelids to see the face of Sonic looking back at him.

"Sorry, Tails, but you've gotta get some food in you before you can think about taking a nap."

Deep down, the cub knew that his older brother was right, but that still didn't make him any more willing to accept his suggestion. He tried turning to his side and curling up for extra warmth, but only succeeded in twisting his arm into an awkward position. Groaning, he decided to sit up.

"Guess we'll leave the sightseeing for tomorrow, huh?" the blue hedgehog joked. Tails yawned and nodded in agreement. He rubbed his eyes with a gloved paw in an effort to regain some clarity of the surrounding area.

Both of them were sitting at a table outside of a small, quaint diner, which had been seemingly tucked away in between two large buildings. The inside of the diner was nothing special: just a simple serving counter with several booths capable of seating four people spread around it, polished wood surfaces and thick cushioned seats. It was the kind of place that may not have been aesthetically pleasing when compared to an expensive restaurant, but the food was of a high enough quality to compensate for it.

Needless to say, this was what had attracted Sonic and Tails to the place, and here they sat on a pair of reclining chairs, separated by a weatherproof table. Many delicious scents wafted through the entrance to the building each time someone opened the door to the kitchen, each one embedding themselves in the kit's nostrils. His mouth began to drool as he tried to pick out their order among the conflicting aromas.

Thankfully, he didn't have long to wait, as seconds later a lanky, male dog wearing an apron made his way over to their table, narrowly balancing a large platter stacked with Chilli Dogs between his hands. "One Chilli Dog Special for six?" the waiter inquired, looking for other members of their party.

Sonic raised a hand into the air. "Just here, dude, thanks."

Tails looked on in disbelief at the size of the meal being laid out before them. It was almost as big as him! Sonic fished for some mobiums from in between his quills, looking for a couple of paper bills that he could use to tip the waiter.

"Thank you kindly, sirs. Enjoy," the dog said leaving them, confused as to how just two of them could hope to eat so much.

Sonic watched as Tails picked his way through the stack of spicy treats, searching for the perfect one to start off with. He shoved the entire thing into his mouth, spreading Chilli sauce across his nose.

"Oh, we will," the fox mumbled happily as he chewed through the snack in two bites.

"Hey, save some for me too, bro!" Sonic laughed as he selected a Chilli Dog of his own.

For such a little guy, Tails sure had one heck of an appetite. The fox finished off his second dog in just as many seconds, and wiped some of the excess sauce from his muzzle. He exhaled a long breath and smiled.

"This is the life, huh, Sonic?"

"You said it, short-stuff," the teen agreed. He licked a small amount of Chilli residue from his fingers, crossed his legs, and folded his arms behind his head in relaxation. "You said it."

Tails manoeuvred his body to sit in the same manner as his idol. One thought passed through his mind as he settled into place.

_Why can't we do this more often?_

Scratch and Grounder screeched at the top of their respective voice-units as the Egg-O-Matic hovercraft sliced through the air and into Metropolis City. The tank robot clutched at his brother for dear life, unaware that he was obscuring his vision. Scratch attempted to peel the arms of his twin away from his eyes.

"Let go, you oversized paperweight! I can't see where I'm go-AHHHH!"

The hovercraft was on a collision course with a tall skyscraper. The chicken Badnik wrenched the steering mechanism to the left with as much force as he dared. The vehicle narrowly avoided its target and flew off merrily into its new chosen direction. The two robots screamed again as their ocular sensors observed the range of obstacles now rushing to meet them as a result of their course change. Scratch steered the Egg-O-Matic as best as he could, trembling like a large plate of jelly on top of a washing machine.

Needless to say, Grounder's backseat driving was not helping. "Left! No, right! Straight ahead! Watch out for that sign!"

The vehicle ploughed through a billboard with a loud '_Crunch_', covering the two lackeys in sawdust, and reducing the speed of the hovercraft to a crawl. Scratch coughed up a large cloud of dust and brushed a few wood splinters from his shoulder.

"Well, that wasn't so bad," he said in a relaxed tone.

Grounder pulled a handkerchief out of his chest compartment and blew his nose loudly, creating a shower of sparks that cascaded from it. The craft's dashboard lights started to flash repeatedly, drawing their attention to the Hedgehog Detector. Both Badniks looked down below and gasped at what they saw.

"Sonic and the fox-brat are sitting right below us!" Grounder squealed with excitement.

Scratch eagerly licked the 'lips' of his beak and held out an arm toward his twin. "Give me the 'Egg-O-Matic Brain Scrambler and Mind Swapper'. I'm going to bag that hedgehog now!"

"_What_?" Grounder spluttered. "You can't be the one who blasts him – you were the pilot!" He snatched the weapon from the seat beside him and hurriedly took aim. "If anyone is going to blast that hedgehog, it should be me."

"Dr. Robotnik wants us to blast _Sonic_!" argued Scratch. "Not the streetlamp ten feet away, so give it here!" The chicken robot lunged for the device, wrapping his long fingers around the barrel. Grounder tugged as hard as he could, determined to keep the device in his grasp.

"No way! You were the pilot, so now I get to shoot!" As the bots struggled to seize possession of the contraption, neither of them noticed that their hovercraft had started to rock violently back and forth. Scratch had decided that enough was enough.

"Fine!" he growled. "If you won't give it to me, I'll come back there and take it myself!"

He leaped out of his seat and pounced on top of Grounder. This was too much for the flying machine to take. The sudden shift in weight caused the vehicle to spin 360 degrees, depositing its cargo on a one-way trip to the hard ground below.

Sonic frowned as his ears focused on a strange noise. It sounded like something heavy was falling from a great height, and fast. Whatever it was, it was getting closer – and it was right above them. With lightning-fast reflexes, the blue blur leaped across the table and shoved Tails to the floor.

"Hey! What's the big-" the fox started, before two objects plunged into their table, scattering the Chilli Dogs and broken pieces of furniture around the large crater they had just created.

"Phew!" Sonic muttered, wiping his brow. "That was a close one. You okay, pal?"

Tails picked himself up off of the floor and brushed some of the gravel out of his fur. "I'm fine. Thanks for saving me, Sonic."

The hedgehog offered him a wink. "Anytime, bud. Now, what in the heck _was_ that?"

The blue hero had his question answered when the forms of Scratch and Grounder hoisted themselves out of the hole.

"Scratch and Grounder? What are those two bolt-brains doing here?" he wondered out loud.

Tails looked on as the chicken robot slipped on the side of the pit and fell back inside with a yelp. He was holding something that looked like a pipe. The cub raised a finger and pointed this out to his companion. "What do you think that thing's for, Sonic?"

The hedgehog studied the weapon as best as he could, watching as Grounder tried to heave his twin out of the hole. "I dunno, but I'm gonna go find out." He locked his eyes onto those of his friend. "You stay here and enjoy the show, okay?"

Tails nodded. "You got it, bro."

With that confirmation from the kit, Sonic blasted over to the dazed robotic henchmen.

After a few seconds of struggling, Grounder managed to heave his partner in crime free of the large hole. Scratch cleared his throat with a disgusting retch, and coughed up a large chunk of soil.

"Ugh," he grunted. "I think I have a lump of concrete lodged in my nasal cavity."

"Perhaps Monsieur would like a little something to clear his palette, oui?" a male voice spoke out from behind them.

Scratch and Grounder turned to face the owner of said voice. Their eyes met with a strangely familiar blue hedgehog, dressed in a black pair of trousers, waistcoat and jacket with a bowtie. A long, thin goatee hung off of the end of his chin (attached with superglue), curling into a small loop.

"What do you want?" Grounder asked rudely. The hedgehog waiter gave them a polite smile, and proceeded to speak in a questionably authentic French accent.

"Forgive me, but I was wondering if you two gentlemen would be Scratch and Grounder?" he inquired.

Scratch nodded and attempted to make himself look more imposing by standing on the tips of his toes. "That's us!" he proclaimed with a sneer of arrogance.

The hedgehog raised his hands in welcome, a pleased expression on his face. "Ah, we have been expecting you!"

"You have?" Grounder asked. The hedgehog nodded.

"Oui, oui! A VIP table has been booked in advance just for the two of you." He directed their gaze to a lone table sitting a few feet away from them with two chairs on either side.

Predictably, now being the centre of attention, the Badniks dropped all mistrust immediately.

"Wow! Really?" Scratch squawked. "No one has ever booked us a VIP table before!" The waiter began to walk them over to the table.

"Maybe Dr. Robotnik likes us after all!" Grounder said, smiling excitedly.

Tails watched from the sidelines, desperately trying to keep his sniggering inaudible. "I can't believe they're falling for it!" he murmured between snorts of laughter.

He saw that Sonic was now seating the Badniks into their individual chairs.

"Would you like to see the menu?" the 'waiter' asked them both.

The Badniks nodded. The hedgehog vanished in the blink of an ocular circuit and returned instantly with a pair of leather-bound menus. The robots took one each and perused the list in detail.

"Hmm," Scratch mumbled. "That's the problem with these kinds of places; there's always so much to choose from."

"Would Monsieur like to try the Special?" the waiter suggested. Both Badniks looked at each other and nodded their approval.

"Yeah, the Special sounds good. We'll have two of those," Grounder confirmed. The waiter took the menus and gave them a short nod.

"Very well. The Special will arrive in just a few moments." The hedgehog dashed off, leaving the two moronic cronies to wait for their supposed meal.

Neither of them realised that their table was standing in the middle of a road, nor the humongous eighteen-wheeler truck that was accelerating toward them at top speed.

Before either robot could react, the truck smashed straight into their table and flattened them into the concrete, impressing tire-tracks onto their bodies. Grounder pulled his face out of the serration that lay beneath him, which had been imprinted with the shape of his body. He could see stars.

"I don't see what was so special about that – it felt just like any other eighteen-wheeler running over me," he warbled thickly.

Sonic and Tails couldn't stop themselves from crying with laughter at the scene they had just witnessed. "Bon appetite, bozos!" Sonic said, grinning. "Maybe if you stick around we can see about giving you your just deserts, too!"

"It's the hedgehog!" Scratch yelled, peeling himself from the asphalt. He readied the Mind Scrambler and aimed at the Hero of Mobius, who made no effort to escape its sights.

"That's a pretty neat looking toy!" Sonic exclaimed upon seeing the gizmo trained on him. "What's it do?"

"Wait there and I'll show you!" Scratch barked. As the chicken Badnik pulled the trigger, Sonic had already moved, causing the energy blast to dissipate in a harmless puff of smoke as it struck the ground.

"Yeesh! Talk about a slow-mo!" he said with a smirk. "Come on, I'm standing right here."

Scratch fired again, with Sonic dodging at the last second. "And now I'm standing over here!"

Scratch fired again. "Now I'm here!" the hero said, tapping the bot on the shoulder. Scratch squawked with rage and turned to face him, firing the weapon yet again.

"Will-"

Blast.

"-You-"

Blast.

"-Stand-"

Blast.

"-still!" the mechanical fowl cried out in anger.

The blue blur lived up to his reputation, stringing together a fluent ballet of jumps and dodges. He yawned as another energy blast ricocheted off of a brick wall somewhere near the vicinity of his head and checked an imaginary watch on his wrist. "Guys, do you mind if we wrap this up? I'm getting bored here!"

"Don't worry about that, you blue pest!" Grounder replied. "I've got something over here that will spice things up a little!"

Sonic turned to offer another zinging one liner in response to the tank robot's statement, but his vocal chords froze up at what he saw. Grounder had Tails suspended in the air, his right hand clutched tightly around one of the cub's twin appendages and his left around the other. The fox was trying his hardest to break free, but the metal fingers were clasped shut and digging into his skin with no sign of loosening.

"You better let my little buddy go, robo-dweeb, or I'll spin ya into the ground!" Sonic growled at the Badnik.

"Why should he, when I can just blast him with this!" Scratch clucked with laughter as he pointed the bazooka at the fox cub. Tails ceased fighting as a chilling wave of fear wracked his body.

"Sonic!" he cried, his voice quivering. "Help!"

"He can't help you this time, you little punk!" Grounder snarled with malice. "Fire!"

Scratch pulled the trigger. For all four of them, everything appeared to happen in slow motion.

The contemptible joy plastered across the faces of both robots, knowing that they were about to deal a huge emotional blow to their master's hated enemy.

The abject terror on Tails' face as he saw the energy beams erupt from the barrel of the weapon, knowing that this could be all she wrote.

The same expression of surprise on all three faces as they saw the blue hedgehog jump between the fox and the beam at the last possible second, receiving the full brunt of the shot.

Neither Badnik could believe what had just happened. It took a few moments for their synthetic brains to process what both of them had seen, but register it did.

"We got the hedgehog!" Scratch screamed with exuberance.

The yellow ray fanning out from the dish attached to the end of the Mind Scrambler encased the blue hero in a cocoon of light. There was nothing he could do – he was completely paralysed.

The two members of Dr. Robotnik's Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad had finally succeeded in fulfilling their goal: catch Sonic the Hedgehog.

_**(End Chapter)**_

_**AN: **_**And another one bites the dust! Oh yeah!**

**Thank you for reading! I'd love to hear your views on how this is going to far, so please don't hesitate to share your opinion. Until next time, seeya later!**


	4. A Turn for the Worse

_**AN: Wow! Reviews make me happy :) Thanks to ASHPD, Gamenoise, Scyphi for coming back, and thanks to Shadowy Flip Flops of Doom, Jakeroo123 for the adds!**_

_**Mind over Matter**_

**Chapter Four: A Turn for the Worse**

"Sonic!" Tails cried out as he continued to struggle in Grounder's hands. "Sonic, you've gotta snap out of this!"

"He can't do anything, pipsqueak!" his captor sniggered.

Scratch clucked his signature laugh as he continued to hold the Mind Scrambler steady, the yellow luminescence pouring out of the weapon's barrel like water from a tap, splashing against the Hero of Mobius. He patted the side of the weapon with care.

"Thanks to this, the hedgehog is as good as ours!"

Tails refused to believe it. Sonic had escape from far worse situations before without even breaking a sweat. The fox looked his hero directly in the eye, a small tear falling from his own. Sonic had not moved once since the beam was activated, though if the expression on his face was anything to go by, he was aware of everything that was occurring. The young cub frantically wracked his brains for a way to escape.

_What can I do? _He thought desperately. _What would Sonic do?_

Another tear leaked down his muzzle as his brain shared the answer to this question with no forethought.

_Sonic can't do anything. He's trapped, remember?_

The kit shook his head, dispelling any further sobs that threatened to leave his throat. He wasn't going to cry about it. Not when Sonic needed him. The kit reluctantly tore his gaze away from his best friend and instead stared at the two Badniks. There had to be some kind of opening somewhere: something that he could take advantage of.

Scratch continued to cackle incessantly, hopping from one foot to the other in some kind of victory dance. He was enjoying their success far too much.

"This thing is great!" he exclaimed, looking over the device that he held in his hand with an appreciative eye. "Just a few more seconds, and then I can bring the hedgehog to Dr. Robotnik gift wrapped!" The Badnik's smile spread even further across his beak. "When he sees that I've managed to capture Sonic, he's going to be so proud of me!"

The mouth of the young vulpine twitched as he suppressed a grin. It appeared as though he had found what he was looking for.

Tails turned to face Grounder, who was still holding tightly onto his two namesakes, and smiled. "Hey! Bolt-face! I've got something to ask you," he said in a conspiratorial voice.

The tank robot raised the fox by his tails to eye-level.

"Prisoners aren't allowed to talk, brat!" he told the cub with a sneer.

Tails shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever. I was just going to ask why you were letting him-" he pointed to Scratch "-take all the credit for capturing us. I mean, you worked together, right?"

"Huh?" Grounder's eyes followed the direction of the extended digit, going wide as he allowed the fox's words to sink in. "But that's not fair!" the robot spluttered indignantly. "He never would have blasted the hedgehog if I hadn't grabbed you!"

"I know," the fox agreed. He beckoned the robot closer with one paw. "Do you want to know what I think you should do?" he asked in a whisper. Grounder nodded. Tails smiled. "I think you should call Robotnik before its too late, and tell him yourself!"

The tank robot's mouth split into a contorted grin, "Yeah," he said slowly. "Then he'll know that this was all my idea! Thanks!"

Grounder released one of the fox's tails and opened his chest compartment, retrieving the phone contained within. Tails acted quickly, swinging his loose tail into the robot's face with as much force as he could muster. Many years of flying had developed the muscles within both appendages, making them very strong. This meant that a hit from one of them could very well be the equivalent to a strike from a heavyweight boxer. The tank robot yelled out in pain as the tail socked him in face with a loud '_THWACK_', causing him to drop the fox in surprise.

Tails quickly scrambled to his feet, rubbing his sore appendages. "Whew! I can't believe that worked. Now to go and save Sonic!"

The twin-tailed cub started to run over to the endangered hero when Grounder snatched his arm. "Oh no you don't!" the robot yelled. "You're not going anywhere!"

_I don't have time for this, _the fox thought angrily. _I have to save Sonic now!_

The kit turned and pushed against the robot's metal chest with both feet, attempting to tug and twist his arm away from the vice-like grip. As he struggled, strands of fur were painfully torn out as they got caught in the small divots of metal lining the robot's hand, and he began to sweat from the exertion. The perspiration enabled him to slide his arm free of Grounder's grip, though the sudden release caused him to lose balance and stumble backwards.

Tails crashed into Sonic with a yelp, knocking the hedgehog backwards and into Scratch. The synthetic chicken hollered in surprise at the forceful contact and dropped the Mind Scrambler. The weapon shattered into numerous pieces, dispersing the energy ball that had wrapped around the two heroes and throwing everyone off of their feet from the resultant shockwave.

Everyone lay still for a moment, the silence broken by the soft tinkling of metal falling to the concrete.

Sonic groaned. Each one of his limbs felt as though they had been removed and then reattached into the wrong sockets, and his brain felt as though someone had been scrubbing it with a scouring pad.

_Where am I?_ He wondered blearily. _Last thing I remember was squaring off against those two dingbats, and then I wake up with one way un-cool headache._

The Hero of Mobius slowly parted his eyelids, shutting them again as the intense sunlight stabbed against his retinas. He tried again seconds later, blinking rapidly in an attempt to quicken their adjustment to the brightness. Seconds later, he could see well enough to know that he was still in Metropolis City.

_Okay, that was the easy part. Now for stage two._

Fighting against every nerve ending in his body, and sparring with natural instinct to curl into a protective ball until the uneasiness vanished, Sonic got to his feet. His legs shook upon application of body weight, almost as though he had never used them. He growled softly from frustration. Why was this taking so much effort?

_Come on, hedgehog – you can do this._

One of his legs trembled, unbalancing him. With a small cry, Sonic fell back against a nearby wall.

Sonic grumbled and tried again, successfully easing himself to a standing, if not completely stable, position. He breathed heavily as he leaned against the wall for support. _Man, my head is killing me! I just wish I could remember why._

The hedgehog tried to recall whatever memory he could; hoping that one of them could fill the void in his recollection.

_What was I doing before I woke up? _He looked across the street to the diner that was nearby. _That's right. I was at that diner, eating Chilli Dogs with Tails, when-_

"_Tails_!" Sonic gasped. "I've gotta make sure he's alright!"

The teenage freedom fighter raised a hand to block excess light from his vision and looked over the surrounding area properly. There seemed to be a couple of scorch marks littered around the masonry, but nothing suggesting a full-scale battle. As he continued his search, his ears picked up the sound of metal scraping on concrete. He turned to see Scratch and Grounder, hoisting each other up to their feet (or treads, in Grounder's case).

"Oh...no thanks, I don't need a new suit," Scratch burbled, counting the canary birds swooping before his face. "I think my mother has something just in my size."

"What happened?" Grounder asked, straightening the antenna fixed to his head, and then twisting said body part to face in the right direction.

Scratch tapped his head a few times, allowing a couple of dislodged circuits to slip back into place. He then looked over toward the remains of the Mind Scrambler, which had been broken down into most of its constituent parts. He gasped in horror.

"The Mind Scrambler!" he shrieked.

Grounder covered his mouth in shock. "Now what are we going to do?"

Sonic glared at the two Badniks, eyes narrowed and teeth bared. They hadn't noticed him. That would be their mistake. Ignoring his aching body for now, the hero jumped over to them and lifted his foot in preparation for a kick. "How about you both go for a little ride?" he said with a smirk, not realising that his voice was now at a higher pitch.

Scratch and Grounder turned to face him, both staring in surprise at the person they saw. Wasting no time, Sonic delivered a sharp boot to Grounder's midsection. The strength of the blow drove the tank robot on his treads back into his brother. Scratch yelped as the body of his non-identical sibling connected with his own, and carried the both of them careening into a brick wall. The surface shuddered with the impact, allowing a billboard sign to break free from its supports. The Badnik duo looked up at the large advertisement board that was tumbling down to greet them.

"Oh..." Scratch uttered.

"Ah..." Grounder concurred.

The billboard sign crushed both robots beneath the force accumulated from its descent, kicking up a cloud of dirt and debris.

The Hero of Mobius wrapped his hands around his foot, which was throbbing in agony. "Ouch! Oh, man that hurt!"

Sonic limped across the area, keeping his eyes peeled for a sign of his young friend. There was something different about his movements that distracted him. He felt sluggish, as though the muscles in his body were straining to follow commands that his subconscious had delivered hundreds of times, something that had become even more prominent in his mind with the pain in his foot.

_Maybe that thing Scratch and Grounder were talking about did this to me,_ he wondered.

It wouldn't have been the first time, either. Sonic could recall only too well the effects of Robotnik's slow-mo gun from about a year ago, and the incident had left a nasty taste in his mouth. Whilst hoping that this was not the case, his ears picked up on the sound of somebody breathing lightly mere feet away from him. It had to be Tails. Sonic moved closer to the sound. What he saw, however, was not what he had expected at all.

Lying before him, spread-eagled on the ground was...him?

Tails had heard the commotion from earlier, and felt the reverberation across the ground as a large object had fallen from a great height, possibly from a building. Unfortunately, this hadn't served to assist him in deducing his location. The only thing that he knew right now was that he felt sore. He felt very sore. He had pain in places that most medical dictionaries didn't keep records of. A voice was calling out to him, and his body was being shaken gently. Someone was trying to wake rouse him.

"Tails?" the voice said. There was something familiar about the pitch of that voice, but he couldn't quite place who it belonged to. "Tails!" it called again. "Wake up!"

"Sonic?" the young hero ventured. "Is that you?"

"It's me, bud," the speaker replied. "How are you feeling?"

Tails sat up with great difficulty and rubbed his head. "Ugh," he grunted. "Not good, Sonic. I don't feel like my usual self at all."

He heard the sound of feet trudging awkwardly across the gravel, and a soft snort of humourless laughter. "You don't know how close to the truth you are, little bro. Take a look at yourself in the window."

Confused by his friend's odd request, Tails opened his eyes and pulled himself to his feet, using a lamppost for added leverage. When he looked into the glass, he did not see what he knew he should have. His eyes didn't view the three bangs of hair that hung from his forehead, or the short stature of his brown and white body that he was so accustomed to.

No, the person staring back at him was a blue hedgehog. Tails' jaw dropped.

"No way..." he muttered, running a hand through the slick spikes that stuck out from the back of his head and body. "No way – this had got to be a dream!"

"It isn't a dream, bro. Take a look at me," Sonic responded. Tails turned to see a small fox with two tails looking into his eyes, the twin limbs swishing back and forth with agitation. The former fox cub gasped and pointed at the former hedgehog.

"Y-you're me!" he spluttered. "But, how?"

"I wish I knew," Sonic the fox shrugged. "But I can guarantee that it has something to do with that doohickey those two dumb-bots had with them."

Tails the hedgehog studied his hands and his feet, taking in every nuance of his new body. "This is just so-"

"Weird?" Sonic put forward.

"Cool!" Tails replied. "I always wondered what it would be like to be as fast as you, and now I get to see for real!" Excitedly, he looked around, setting his sight upon a building that stood four blocks away. He pointed at it and smiled. "I bet I could beat you to that skyscraper in a race now, Sonic! Come on!"

The now hedgehog prepared to dash off when the now fox grabbed onto his arm. "Whoa, hold up, pal!" he said. "We've gotta figure this thing out! Don't you want to have your own body back?"

Tails kicked his foot and looked down, sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess," he said slowly. "But how are we going to do that?"

Sonic walked toward the remains of the Mind Scrambler and picked them up. "This is what's left of that hunk of junk they were using on us. It looks pretty totalled now, though."

"Can I take a look at it, Sonic?" Tails requested. Sonic stepped aside, allowing his best friend to kneel and examine the damage.

"Hmm," the 'hedgehog' mumbled after a few seconds, frowning. "If I had some blueprints or something, I might have been able to do it myself. But the thing has completely fallen apart." He stood back upon his feet and shrugged his shoulder. "I have no idea what would go where."

"And it's not exactly like we can stroll up to doc Butt-nik's fortress and ask him if he's got a spare," Sonic agreed.

The former fox thought for a second. "Well, what about Professor Von Schlemmer? He likes to build stuff. Maybe he could take a look at it."

"Yeah," Sonic considered. "Good thinking, my not-so-foxy buddy! Let's jam over to the professor's house and see if he can, literally, make something out of this." He grabbed hold of Tails' hand. "Up, over, and gone!" he yelled breaking out into a...jog.

At first he was confused about the lack of speed, but slowed to a stop and released his friend's arm when he remembered why this was the case.

"Oh...yeah, that's right," he murmured.

For the first time in his life, Sonic felt completely naked. His speed was his identity, and now it had been taken away from him.

_Worse still,_ he thought, _how can I stand up to Ro-butt-nik if I can't juice?_ The now fox shook his head, trying to dispel these negative scenarios. _What am I saying? Everything will work out – it always does! I'm sure that the professor will help us think of a solution to this when we get to him._

The not-quite-so-blue blur turned to look at Tails, who appeared to be having some difficulty in controlling his new found acceleration.

"Sonic! I...can't...whoops!" he yelled as he finally lost his footing, Sonic cringed as he saw what had until recently been his body take a nosedive to the floor, skidding through the dirt on its muzzle.

_Scratch that, _Sonic thought to himself. _Make that _if _we get to him._

Scratch and Grounder poked their heads out through a large split in the wooden billboard sign that rested atop of them. The tank robot sighed. "Sometimes, I just don't think I'm cut out for this job."

"Shut your yap! This is your fault, anyway!" Scratch hissed. "Because of you, Sonic and Tails are getting away with the pieces of Dr. Robotnik's Mind Scrambler!"

"What do you think he'll say?" the tank robot nervously wondered. "Do you think he'll be angry?"

The phone in his chest compartment began to ring, shaking the robot's body forcefully. Scratch patted him consolingly on the shoulder.

"Just remember," he said to his younger brother. "You were the one who was in charge of this mission."

_**(End Chapter)**_

_**AN: Aha! Plot! I was wondering when it was going to show up in this story! :D**_

_**Just a heads up: I've still got some work to do on chapter 5 before posting, so it may take a little longer than the others. Thank you very much if you've made it this far, and I look forward to hearing what you think! Seeyall next time! :)**_


	5. Jungle Joyride

**_AN: ...What? I'm on time...barely. Sorry for the wait, everyone. I'm going to try and make it up to you by publishing this chapter, which also happens to be my longest yet! Woo-hoo! Also, a big ol' heap of thanks to ASHPD for looking over the story and confirming that it (vaguely) makes sense! :D_**

**_So, with that taken care of, on we go!_**

_**Mind over Matter**_

**Chapter Five: Jungle Joyride**

"What!" Robotnik spluttered into the mouthpiece of the phone that he was holding between his clenched fingers. "You had those two miserable fuzz-balls cornered, and you let them get away?"

The recipient of his ire cleared their throat nervously, before replying. "Y-yes, your bad temperedness," Scratch whimpered.

"Then," the dictator continued, "you mean to tell me that my masterful invention was destroyed?"

"Y-yes," was the reply, coming once more from Scratch's beak.

Robotnik growled ferociously. He crushed the device in his palm, the sound of the breaking plastic being drowned out by the scraping of his own grit teeth. "How?" he snarled, the punctuation of the word embedding itself within the mind of the robot like a butcher knife in a dartboard.

"It wasn't our fault, Dr. Robotnik, sir!" Grounder wailed instead. "It was all that Tails brat's fault! He was the one who-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses!" the mad doctor bellowed. "I want to know why you're not following them! I want to know why you're not blasting them with my Mind Scrambler at this very moment!"

"Yes, sir, we will!" the tank robot promised. Robotnik waited for a minute, his ears picking up the sound of metal clanking upon concrete. He could hear the phone being passed over to Scratch, who swallowed the excess oil that had pooled within his metallic gullet.

"Well?" the doctor asked. "Why aren't you doing what I said?"

The edges of the cybernetic rooster's beak clacked together from the fear of having to deliver bad news to his belligerent master. "W-w-w-we c-c-can't!"

An uncomfortable silence descended upon them for a number of seconds, though for the Badniks it felt as though it could have lasted for the remainder of their runtime. Scratch shivered: if he didn't know better, he would have sworn that the temperature around him had dropped at least ten degrees.

"What?" Robotnik asked with a deceptive calmness to his tone.

Scratch swallowed again. "I s-s-said, 'w-w-we c-c-can't'!"

The tyrant thumped his round fist into the console before him. "You can't? Well, why not?"

"Because Sonic took the pieces with him!" both Badniks cried.

Robotnik's face flushed a worrisome shade of bright puce, and steam rose slowly from his ears. His breathing came in animalistic grunts, sounding as though each breath had been strained through a bellows with a rock placed on top of it.

"Now, you listen to me you contemptible pair of constructed can openers!" he spoke with an underlining promise of danger to the delivery of his words. "My global Mind Scrambler is almost complete, and I don't want Sonic to interfere. If he was to stick his little snout into the proceedings, my deliciously dastardly scheme would be ruined! I want to know why Sonic took the prototype weapon with him, and I want to know what he plans to do with it, immediately.

"And I want to make this absolutely clear: if you two fail me again, I shall melt the both of you down into a molten paste, and use you to repair the cracks in my bathroom tiling! _Do you understand me_?" he finished.

The two robots nodded feverishly in reply before remembering that their creator could not see them. "Yes!" they squealed.

The rotund villain slammed the phone down into its holder with so much force that his hand plunged through the console, creating a shower of sparks and causing a small plume of smoke to rise. Robotnik leaned back in his chair and massaged his temples. How could a genius of his calibre seek to control the planet when he was too busy combating his servants' stupidity?

He grumbled in frustration and wandered over to the invention that he had spent most of that very morning constructing. Though unfinished, the weapon promised to be of formidable size: the barrel frame stretched a good 20 feet in length, similar in appearance to an observatory telescope, and it was attached to a podium that also carried a square computer bank, which would later be programmed with targeting data.

With the majority of the invention having already passed fifty percent completion, Robotnik had only now began to regret staying so close to the original design that he had established with the prototype for this one. If he had known that Sonic had intended to steal it, he would have made a few alterations. He forced such thoughts from his mind and smiled: it was too late to worry about such trivialities now. In just a matter of hours, no one would have to worry about anything ever again, except for making sure that his every whim was to be fulfilled.

/

Sonic the 'fox' panted as he saw his young friend run ahead of him. "Slow down, Tails! Wait for me!" he gasped.

The phrase didn't so much roll off of the tongue as be forced to jump at gunpoint. No matter how many times he had said those words since the accident: in the order that he had been saying them, they just felt wrong.

Sonic mentally ran down a list of all that had happened to the two of them that morning. Taking the big guy out for a run? Check. Taking a break before being interrupted by Scratch and Grounder? Check. Being blasted with some experimental weapon which had swapped their minds over into the other's body? Big old check.

Once the two of them had finished collecting their bearings, the heroes had then dashed into a nearby store and bought a cheap burlap sack. Gathering together as many pieces of the broken invention that they could find, they placed them in the sack and began their journey to the house of Professor Von Schlemmer, located within the deeper Mobius Jungle. The professor had relocated to a more remote part of the world in order to continue his scientific experiments, which often yielded explosive conclusions, without disturbing the peace.

No doubt the trip would have been made easier if his young partner hadn't chosen this moment to dart back and forth between the trees at top speed. Sonic winced again as he saw the fox that had involuntarily assumed command over his body in another near head-on collision, changing direction at the last possible second to avoid slamming into the thick tree trunk that stood tall before him.

"Tails, could you please not do that?" Sonic asked again. "You're going to hurt yourself!" He paused for a second. "And me!"

"Sorry, Sonic, but this is just too cool!" the high-speed former fox replied, weaving between a thicket of redwoods. "I've waited for so long to be fast like you, and now I am for real!"

"Bro, you may have my speed, but that doesn't mean you can control it like I can!" the now-fox argued. "I may make it look easy, but that's because I've had more practice!"

Tails turned to face Sonic with a big grin on his face. "Aw, don't sweat it 'little buddy'," he chuckled, making the hedgehog frown. "I can handle it! You know, it's not actually that haaaaa-!"

The young mobian's words were cut off as one of his fleet feet hooked itself under an exposed tree root and threw him through the air. Sonic watched with wide eyes as the 'hedgehog' soared through the air like a blue scud missile and landed with a loud 'THUMP' upon his nose. The 'fox' quickly ran to his friend as fast as his short legs could carry him, skidding to a kneeling position upon reaching him.

"Tails! Buddy, are you okay?" he asked hurriedly.

The hero in training opened his eyes and blinked a few times, adjusting his vision. "Ugh," he grunted his voice hazy. "I think so, Sonic."

"Oh yeah?" the hero of Mobius contested, a doubtful frown on his brow. He lifted his right hand and held the index and middle fingers up in front of the dizzy kit's face. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Tails stared at the extended digits for a couple of seconds. "Six?" he answered hopefully.

"I thought so," Sonic replied. "And with that, what say we take a break for a sec? I don't know about you, but my feet are killing me."

He took a seat next to his friend upon the dirt and removed the shoe from his right foot, massaging the swollen sole. Aside from losing his own speed, the hedgehog had also unwittingly inherited the aches and pains that Tails had been keeping secret from him during their extended training sessions. For lack of a better term, he was beat.

The 'hedgehog' rubbed his snout and pushed himself upright to a more comfortable position with the help of the 'fox'. He noticed the attention that Sonic was giving to his feet, feeling a little bit guilty for keeping the discomfort hidden from his friend.

"Do they hurt much?" Tails asked, hoping that he hadn't caused a problem for the hero.

"Nothing too bad: I can take it," Sonic replied, focusing his efforts now upon the left. "Though, these pains feel like they've been going on for a little while. I wish you would have told me if I was pushing you too hard, dude."

"I'm sorry, Sonic," Tails replied, and he meant it. "I just didn't want you to be disappointed in me."

"Where'd you get a funny idea like that?" the former hedgehog questioned. "I'm not going to be disappointed so long as you try your best. You were doing your best, right?"

Tails nodded. Sonic grinned and opened his arms wide to express his point. "Then what are you worrying about? What, you really think I'd ditch the one guy on Mobius who can keep up with me? No way!"

The now-hedgehog laughed as his older brother wrapped an arm around his neck and gave him a noogie with his free hand. "Hey! Quit it!" Tails giggled, fighting against the grip. Surprisingly, he broke free straight away. He looked down at his hands, and sighed internally. "I really hope we can get our own bodies back soon, Sonic."

Sonic decided not to point out how eager Tails had been to have _his_ body earlier and nodded. "Me too. Let's get going: I think we've rested for long enough."

Tails smiled as he watched his friend stand and stretch, already raring to go. It was true: Sonic by name, Sonic by nature.

"Okay, Sonic. And hey, maybe I could teach you how to fly using your - I mean, my tails too," the former kit suggested.

Sonic had a sudden premonition, involving two very tangled tails and much time spent on a hospital drip. "Maybe later," he said.

/

Scratch trained his beady eyes upon the stretch of dusty road that cut a path through the Mobius Jungle, anxiously awaiting the telltale cloud of dust that would often signify the arrival of Sonic.

"Aren't you finished yet?" he asked irritably of his cyber sibling. "They're going to come through here any second!"

Grounder poked his head above the lip of the pit that he was currently digging, wiping thick clumps of soil from the end of his nose cone, which had a large drill piece attached to it.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" he argued. "It's not easy to drill using just your nose, you know!"

Scratch growled and left his brother to continue with his job. After Dr. Robotnik had given them their orders, the two robots had immediately set to work picking up upon the heroes' trail. After a good hour of searching, they had struck lucky and found two sets of footprints leading into a thick rainforest. Then all they had to do was set up a trap for them a short distance ahead, and bring them back to their master's fortress.

The rooster jumped slightly as Grounder trundled up beside him with a loud laugh. "Pit-trap all set!" he said with a grin.

"Did you put the right amount of explosives inside?" Scratch asked.

"Yep. As soon as I press this button-"

He withdrew a small metallic box with a solitary red button placed in the centre of one surface from his chest compartment, glinting slightly in the sunlight.

"-We'll be seeing 'Hedgehog Fricassee'!"

"Good!" Scratch agreed, smirking. "Now, do you remember the plan?"

The rotund tank-bot thought for a moment before shaking his head. "No."

Sighing, the elder of the two by a few minutes slapped a hand to his face. "Grounder, you big boob, it's so simple! Sonic runs into this tripwire here."

He pointed to a thin stretch of cable that had been wound between two heavy rocks. Further on from the cable lay a not-so-carefully hidden net, rigged to snap up whatever landed in it after the wire had been tripped.

"Then, he lands in that net. The net lifts Sonic up into the air, and slams him down into that pit. Once he's inside, you activate the bomb and blow him sky-high!" The rooster clucked with laughter. "Then we take him back to Dr. Robotnik, and I get a medal for my services!"

"Huh. The only way you could win a medal is if you entered a 'Stupid Competition'," Grounder retorted with spite.

"Well, I wouldn't win first prize because you would have already won it!"

"You take that back!"

"Actually, I do take that back. You're so stupid you wouldn't know how to collect the prize in the first place!"

/

Sonic stopped in his tracks and held an arm out in front of Tails, indicating him to do the same.

"What is it, Sonic?" the 'hedgehog' asked.

The hero of Mobius trained his ears forward, cupping a hand around the left one to block out any excess noise. "I thought I heard voices," he said with a frown, keeping his voice quiet. "I don't like it. Stay here for a sec while I scout it out."

Tails nodded and watched as Sonic carefully picked his way through a spinney of bushes that lay before them. Seconds later he returned, and appeared to be deep in thought.

"So, what's wrong?" the former fox tried again, making sure to keep his own voice low too.

"Scratch and Grounder," Sonic replied. "It looks like they've set up some sort of welcome wagon for us."

"How did they know we were here?" Tails wondered. "Do you think they know we're going to see the professor?"

"I doubt it. This trap seems just as lame as all the others," the not-blue blur answered. He turned to gaze back at the direction that he had just ventured into. "All we'd have to do is spring it on _them_, and we'll be good to go. The question right now is: how can we do that?"

Normally, Sonic could have used his awesome speed to lead the Badniks into their own trap, or he would have simply been quick enough to avoid it altogether. Now though, his options had been drastically reduced and the old tricks just wouldn't cut it anymore. He certainly didn't want Tails to attempt any of them at any rate.

Tails sighed loudly. "I wish I still had my tails. Then we could just fly over them."

Sonic brought one of said furry appendages before his stomach and ran the smooth fur between the fingertips of his gloved hands. The mind swap must have overheated his brain: why didn't he think of it earlier?

He smiled and turned to his younger friend. "So, about those flying lessons..."

The robotic troublemakers waited. They waited, and waited, and waited some more. Scratch for one had never been so bored before in his entire existence. So used was he to the constant chasing of the hedgehog, that he had never had much time to spend just waiting for things to happen.

Grounder yawned some feet away from him behind the tree that served as his hiding place. "Where are they?" he asked, checking his internal timekeeping mechanism. "Shouldn't they be here by now?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Scratch retorted. "Are you sure you followed those tracks right?"

Grounder scratched his domed head. "Yeah...I think."

Scratch groaned with frustration and placed his hands on his hips. "Nice going, you overweight meat grinder. You went the wrong way!"

"Nope," Sonic interrupted. "I'd say that this way was just right!"

Scratch screeched and squawked as the former hedgehog suddenly swooped down from the air and clasped his fingers around the robotic rooster's arms, lifting him from the ground ten feet into the air. Sonic struggled against the weight of the cyber fowl, forcing his eyes shut in concentration.

_Man – this guy's heavier than he looks!_ He thought, feeling the strain that the metallic chassis was placing upon 'his' as yet underdeveloped muscles. _Just which part of this seemed like a good idea again?_

Tails had given him a brief crash-course in how to fly, instructing him on how to twirl his tails at a speed that would generate sufficient lift and thrust. At first Sonic had only managed to succeed in painfully twisting the two extensions together, creating a knot that Tails had to assist him in untying. Upon his third try, he had just about managed it, lifting two feet from the ground before landing back upon his feet. In typical Sonic style, that development had been good enough, and he had then charged headlong in to meet the Badniks.

Sonic lifted Scratch higher and higher, sweat beginning to bead upon his forehead. He didn't want to put Tails' body through an unnecessary risk or hurt him, but they had both agreed that their chosen solution to the problem was the best (or at least, the only one available at the time). His mind remained focused on keeping the tails spinning; he really didn't want to take the express journey back down to terra firma. He could feel Scratch's involuntary shaking coursing up through the robot's arms into his own, making his concentration all the more difficult. It wouldn't be long before the robot would fall, dragging him back down as well.

"Put me down, put me down!" the rooster whimpered repeatedly, watching in terror as the land below him became further and further away. Of all the things that Robotnik had programmed him to feel, why was 'fear' one of them?

Grounder waved his conical arms above his head rapidly, trailing after the ascending mobian and his partner. "Drop him, drop him!" he yelled to the 'fox'

Sonic shrugged. "Okay," he replied. "I'll drop him."

"No!" Scratch shrieked.

Sonic released his grip on the fowl, who plummeted down to earth with an ear-splitting cry. Scratch landed in his own net, which then closed around him and sprung up into the air, walloping him back and forth between the hard ground and thick trees that created the jungle. Grounder rushed forward to assist and received a blow to the face for his troubles, which toppled him into the pit that he had dug. The rope that had tied the net finally snapped, launching the entangled Scratch into the hole alongside him.

Sonic landed somewhat clumsily, falling to his face from the overexertion. Tails ran forward to help him up.

"Sonic, you did it!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Not yet, bro," Sonic replied, breathing heavily. "Give it another few seconds."

They waited for three of the appointed seconds. A large column of fire erupted from the pit that contained the Badniks, scattering the wild birds from the treetops with its tremendous 'BOOM', raining shards of metal and clods of earth across a five mile radius.

Sonic smirked. "Now, I've done it."

Tails chuckled slightly and walked around the back of his friend, investigating the condition of the two tails. "How do they feel? Are you hurt?"

"They're not gonna come off, if that's what you're wondering," the hero deadpanned. "But it will sure take some getting used to. Anyway, I think we've wasted enough time. We should go to the professor's house before it's too late."

Scratch poked his head out of the smoking crater that the two robots had been dumped into and wiped the thick soot from his eyes, watching as Sonic and Tails yet again escaped their clutches.

"Oh, rats! They're getting away!" he cried.

"Dr. Robotnik is not going to like to this!" Grounder whimpered.

/

"Can't you rotten robots do anything right?" the oval oppressor thundered down the mouthpiece of his already damaged telephone. Both of the robots experienced a worrying sensation of déjà vu over the familiarity of the situation.

"Aw, we tried our best! Honest!" Grounder explained, trying to appeal to his creator's humility. What a pity that he had none to spare.

"Silence!" Robotnik ordered, stripping the colour from the plastic phone with the ferocity of his delivery. "You two useless numbskulls have had all the chances that you are going to get! From now on, both of you are demoted to laundry duty!"

"Oh, sir! Please, be reasonable!" the duo pleaded. They had been unfortunate enough to have such a task assigned to them before, and knew how taxing the workload was. Both of them had suffered serious metal fatigue from the underwear pile alone.

"Quiet!" Robotnik bellowed, reducing the phone to its bare components. He picked up the small microphone that made up the mouthpiece and held it before his lips. "I want you to report back here this very instant to carry out your new orders!"

"But, what about the hedgehog?" Scratch asked nervously. "Don't you want us to stop him?"

"You've done enough!" the doctor roared. "This time, I'll intercept those two bothersome twerps myself!"

Without waiting for acknowledgement, Robotnik threw the destroyed phone with great force upon his desk and stomped over to another control console, scattered with numerous coloured buttons. He pressed one particularly large red one, which opened a split in the floor of his lab. A few seconds later, another Egg-O-Matic device - identical to the one that Scratch and Grounder had used - rose from an underground garage to rest before him. It was a good thing that he had opted to keep spares in case of an emergency.

Robotnik hurled his impressive bulk into the vehicle and wrenched a lever on the dashboard. The Egg-O-Matic spluttered into life and the engine hummed in protest as the single back-loaded thrusters activated with a burst of blue flame. He pressed another button, this time upon the dashboard of his craft, which opened a hatch in the roof of the room. Wasting no further time he proceeded to fly the vehicle through it.

_The call from Grounder pinpointed their location as being in the Mobius Jungle_, he thought to himself. _That must mean that Sonic is going to visit that scientific reject, Professor Von Schlemmer._

The overweight madman grumbled loudly as he recalled some of the previous encounters between the professor and himself. Though he considered it unlikely that the bumbling inventor would ever be able to unravel the intricacies of his invention, Robotnik still thought it prudent to prevent Sonic and Tails from doing whatever it was that they were planning to do.

He sighed as he plotted in his destination on the craft's GPS. Things were so much simpler when the hedgehog just used to run and smash things.

END CHAPTER.

**_AN: And there we go! I want to offer many thanks to ASHPD, the Cinderninja, Gamenoise, Scyphi, sonicxjones, 9string, Gryffindor-Sword, Samantha27, Koololly, Epsilon Team Captain Hande, Vampire Tails, SilverShadow471 and Imaginator11 for adding/faving/reading/doing something with my story. Thank you so much! Sorry if I missed anyone out._**

**_Oh yeah. I'm going to be busy over pretty much all of June, so it's doubtful that I will be able to update. However, I am going to be working on the chapters when I have some free time, so I will guarantee that there will be another ready by July._**

**_Thanks, everyone. Seeyall next time!_**


	6. If You Were Me

_**AN: Phew! I said that I'd upload in July, and here it is. I'm sorry that I didn't put it up sooner - it just seemed to take so long to write this chapter and be happy with it. This one's longer than the last one, so hopefully that will make up for it in some way :) I hope you like it!**_

_**DISCLAIMER: I still don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or anything affiliated. The only thing I own is this story.**_

**Mind over Matter**

**Chapter Six: If You Were Me...**

The Mobius Jungle was generally regarded to be an inhospitable place, filled as it was with all manner of wild flora and fauna that most folk would rather avoid. Tall trees with thick trunks and numerous green leaves blocked out most of the sunlight, assisting in creating a sweltering heat that many mobians found to be unbearable and the naturally formed ground difficult to traverse across because of the harsh dust.

It was considered odd then in most peoples' minds that a genius of Professor Von Schlemmer's calibre should choose such a location to be his home. Often these suggestions were swiftly silenced when it was pointed out that the professor himself was rather odd to begin with, and such a decision wasn't to be unexpected. The choice made far more sense when considered logically, however. Von Schlemmer enjoyed experimenting with new, untested machinery and often the results of this meddling would be explosive, in a quite literal sense. Therefore, moving to a more remote part of the globe so as to lessen any potentially dangerous accidents had been a smart move.

Plus, the tax collectors tended to visit far less frequently when the path to their destination was littered with Venus fly traps bigger than a house.

The building was a bizarre structure in of itself, no great surprise considering that Von Schlemmer had designed and built it. Large blocks hewn from concrete made up the majority of the brickwork with heavy layers of mortar holding them together. Patches of the masonry were shaded different colours; evidence of repair work that had been carried out following a failed microwave oven rewire earlier in the month. The house was in possession of two floors, both tiers connected rather haphazardly by what appeared to be yet more concrete and a sizable portion of goodwill.

A genius Professor Von Schlemmer may have been, but clearly his architecture left a lot to be desired. Like an escape route.

The interior of the house could hardly have been considered a vast improvement. Nearly every room contained a selection of half-finished or burnt out contraptions that had been abandoned when the latest spark of inspiration had taken hold. Long feeds of electrical cable snaked through the building like a central nervous system, their source of energy long since diverted to other interfaces, and scraps of metal, loose screws and other paraphernalia lay carelessly strewn upon an array of workbenches.

One particular invention appeared to be most prominent within the main living area of the house: a tall rectangular shaped box that rested upon four spindly legs, each metallic limb clamped to the stained carpeted floor via foot-like support panels. The device stood very much incomplete even by the professor's standards; loose wiring sprouted from between gaps in the alloy casing and a strange tapping noise seemed to be emanating from within a central compartment located in its 'chest'.

The sound occurred at a frequent volume, metal on metal banging every few seconds. The taps stopped momentarily after a different tone of knocking rang throughout the house.

"Oh, man, what's taking him so long?" Sonic complained once more as he beat his fist against the wooden door to Von Schlemmer's residence. He tapped the sole of his right sneaker against the stone step rapidly, an obvious sign of irritation to anyone who knew the former hedgehog well.

Tails shrugged. "Maybe no one's home?" he suggested, repositioning the burlap sack upon his back into a more comfortable position.

The Hero of Mobius frowned. Cupping his hands around his muzzle, he leaned forward until his nose was inches from the door and yelled at the top of his lungs. "Yoo-hoo! Professor Von Schlemmer! It's Sonic and Tails, and we're waaaaiiitiiiing!"

"Yeah, are you home?" Tails pitched in, approaching the door also.

"I think so!" a muffled voice responded, glazed in a thick Northern Mobius accent (the closest approximation by Earth standards being German).

"Well, are ya or ain't ya?" Sonic replied, his patience wearing a little thin. "We've got a mondo serious problem on our hands!"

"Oh, then I am most definitely here!" said voice called back. "Please, come in!"

"Finally," the non-blue blur muttered, turning the brass handle and throwing the door open.

The two heroes stepped over the threshold and gawked at the sight before them.

"Whoa, look at this place!" Tails exclaimed. "Even Robotnik could get lost among all this junk!"

Sonic smirked at the thought and began to pick his way through the mass of debris. "C'mon, kiddo; the professor's gotta be around here somewhere, and we're gonna have to find him."

The former fox deposited the heavy bag that he had been carrying onto the floor, rubbing the fine fur near his neck where the rough straps had been digging into his shoulder blades. He watched as his closest friend approached a large apparatus that had been erected in the middle of the room. To his eyes, it looked as though someone had bolted a refrigerator to a quartet of thin pipes.

"What do you think that thing's for, Sonic?" he asked, running his eyes over the metallic shell.

"Beats me," the hero replied, giving the body an experimental knock upon the side with his open palm. He was mildly surprised to hear a soft yelp returned from within the device. With a raised eyebrow he leaned forward and pressed his ear against the surface. "Professor, is that you in there?"

"Yes, mother, how can I help you?" the inventor replied, his figurative bell having been rung from Sonic's slap against the invention.

The hero rolled his eyes and turned to beckon his companion to come closer. "Well, I found the professor," he stated flatly. "See if you can't find a way to let him out, Tails."

The younger of the two by over ten years nodded and cast a critical eye over the construction. Some time ago the kit had developed a talent for mechanics and inventing, even assisting Von Schlemmer in developing a mechanism designed to catch Dr. Robotnik. Regretfully, the device had been promptly manipulated by the megalomaniac for more nefarious purposes, such as attempting to destroy his blue nemesis. The event had left Tails less willing to create his own machines but he was still more than happy to repair and fix them (though Sonic reckoned that it would only be a matter of time before he rediscovered his passion). Either way, when it came to figuring out anything mechanical he was the fox for the job.

Tails ran his fingertips across the bulk of the structure, searching for any hidden access panels that he could pry loose. He smiled when his digits ghosted over a movable sheet of plastic which he quickly removed to reveal a large button marked "Emergency Release". The former fox pushed it with his thumb and stood back. A loud hissing noise filled the room as a small cavity in the rectangular block snapped open, allowing the form of Professor Von Schlemmer to tumble out and land in a heap on the floor.

"Ooh," he groaned, poking his tongue out of the side of his wide mouth. "I don't feel so good."

Sonic grabbed a hold of his hand and pulled him to his feet. Von Schlemmer wobbled slightly as he stood on his thin legs, his ocean-green shade of skin looking perhaps a little more pale than usual. He straightened the small spectacles that rested on his long nose and patted some grime from his white lab coat.

"Are you feeling okay?" the teen freedom fighter asked him.

He straightened the wavy orange hair that towered from the top of his head and nodded. "I think so. Thank you for letting me out; it was getting a little cramped in there!"

"How long were you in there, professor?" Tails wondered.

"Oh, most of the day," the eccentric inventor replied with a tone of nonchalance. Such things were a regular occurrence to him. "To tell you the truth, I was beginning to get a little bit hungry.

"But!" he stated, turning to regard the machine properly and with a smile that accentuated his large overbite. "I think it was worth it. This is most definitely one of the best constructamajigs that I have ever built!"

Tails nodded, impressed by such a declaration. "Wow, really? What does it do?" he asked.

The professor paused for a moment and scratched his head. "You know, I have no idea. I think it was going to be a hot plate when I started..."

Sonic rolled his eyes. Only Von Schlemmer could build something without any clue as to what its purpose should be. "Never mind that," he said, hoping to get back on track with the reason for their visit. "We've got a big emergency and we need your help."

"Of course, Sonic, I'm all ears," he said. "Not literally of course; that would be disgusting. But I am listening."

"...Right," Sonic uttered mildly perplexed. "Anyway, me and my little buddy got hit by some bogus brain ray of Buttnik's which swapped our minds over, and now we need to find a way to swap 'em back."

The professor nodded. "Did you bring it with you?"

"As much as we could pick up: the thing got totalled and went supernova. We gathered what we could find and put it all in this bag." Sonic gestured to the sack that Tails had placed on the ground near the front door.

Von Schlemmer cupped a hand around his near non-existent chin. "Hmm. Could I take a look at it?"

Tails dragged the burlap sack over to the both of them and swept a pile of junk clear from one of the inventor's workbenches. He upended the bag and tipped out the contents, the three of them staring as the destroyed Mind Scrambler spilled across the surface. Once the deluge of scrap had stopped the professor walked forward, taking a piece of circuitry between his thumb and forefinger.

"Well, what do you think?" Sonic asked, always waiting for the fast response.

"Hmm..." Von Schlemmer pondered out loud. "It's definitely broken."

"Tell me something I don't know," the teen replied dryly. "Can you fix it or not?"

Von Schlemmer placed the circuit piece back upon his workbench and retrieved another, a cable this time. "It shouldn't be too hard. I could maybe have this finished in about ten years."

"We don't have ten years!" Tails exclaimed. "If we don't do something soon, Robotnik will find out about us and we'll be goners!"

"I wouldn't go that far, Tails, but it would be way past un-cool," Sonic agreed. "Not to mention it'll make our job of stopping him that much harder."

Von Schlemmer paused for a moment, running through the possibilities in his mind. "There may be another way. If you had the original design plans, I might be able to do it quicker..."

"Then that's what we'll do," the former fastest thing alive stated. "We'll sneak into Robotnik's fortress and steal those plans!"

"But how are we going to do that, Sonic?" Tails questioned not unreasonably. "I can't even do half the moves you can do with your speed, and you're only just able to fly!"

Sonic flashed his famous smirk. "Simple. What we need to do is-"

His words trailed off as an altogether familiar low-pitched rumbling sound pierced his eardrums. Leaving his two friends' side for the moment he walked across the room to a window, peering out through the glass to discover the source of the interruption. What he saw made him groan with exasperation.

"Great," he said to himself. "This is just what we don't need."

/

Dr. Robotnik sneered with disdain as he cast his beady eye upon the rundown house of Professor von Schlemmer, hovering before the building in his Egg-O-Matic craft. He took in the sight of the crooked brickwork and the display of discarded technology that surrounded the place like a moat made of scrap metal, shaking his head in disbelief.

_And people call this man a genius?_ He scoffed.

Robotnik had never gotten over how the people of Mobius could respect – in his eyes – such an inferior scientist. He didn't understand how his own "brilliance" could go unappreciated whilst somebody like Professor Von Schlemmer was lauded as the "thinking mobian's mobian" in Mobius' 'Scientific Exploits: a General Appreciation' magazine. He had tried to cancel the magazine by kidnapping the publisher but Sonic had managed to rescue him, and contribute to a derogatory article as he was doing so. The bad-tempered tyrant had to replace much of his lab equipment as he struggled to figure out how that blue rat had not only managed to evade all of his traps within his personal prison complex, but take part in an interview with the publisher at the same time.

The oval-like oppressor reached under his seat and retrieved a megaphone, which he placed to his bulbous lips. He flipped the switch and leaned forward in order to direct his voice toward the front door.

"Sonic the hedgehog, Tails the fox and Professor Von Schlemmer the...whatever you are!" he roared. The window panes rattled from the reverberations of his amplified voice. "I, the great Doctor Ivo Robotnik, demand that you return to me my 'Egg-O-Matic Brain Scrambler and Mind Swapper' immediately!"

He pulled a gold-plated watch (replete with his own mug on the face, of course) from within his breast pocket and glared at it. "You have ten seconds!" he decided, slipping the timepiece back into its pouch.

Tails swallowed the bundle of nerves that had formulated in the back of his throat and slipped away from the window to avoid being seen. "This isn't good, Sonic. He looks really mad this time."

"Let that fat egg boil for as long as he wants," Sonic snorted. "We got more important things to worry about."

Walking back across the room to the professor, the Hero of Mobius regarded the disassembled weapon with an analytical glance. To think that it had been a problem when it was in one piece, let alone a DIY kit. "Any luck, professor?"

"I think I'm making good progress," Von Schlemmer replied brightly, connecting a blue length of wire with a red one. "It's sort of a like a jigsaw puzzle when you get the hang of it." He disconnected the two cables and repeated the process, swapping the red for a green.

"Okay," Sonic nodded. "You keep doing that. Me and Tails are gonna lead omelette-breath on a wild-goose chase to give you more time."

The professor nodded and Sonic to returned to Tails, allowing him to continue with his work. "What's he doing now, bro?" the 'fox' asked

"He's just sitting there," the younger of the two answered, a contemplative expression glued to his face. "While you were gone, he called you all kinds of nasty things, like-"

"That's good, Tails," Sonic interrupted, not at all eager to hear the insults from Robotnik's mouth coming from that of his little brothers'. "That's nothing out of the ordinary, so what's got ya scratching your head?"

Tails chanced a momentary look through the window, watching as Robotnik idly tapped his fingers upon the husk of his hovercraft before responding. "When he was calling you names, he started a couple of them off with 'you blue' so-and-so. Sonic, I don't think he knows what's happened to us!"

"He doesn't, huh?" The ex-hedgehog grinned as he too watched the sulking autocrat. "Then I think we should keep it that way; we don't want him spoiling our fun, right?"

"Right," Tails agreed. "But how will we stop him from finding out?"

Sonic thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. He had the perfect plan. "Say, Tails?" he posed. "How well do ya think you know me?"

/

Doctor Robotnik was not a patient man. When he ordered a task to be completed he wanted it finished yesterday, no matter how trivial. In fact, he had once had an entire quintet of service-bots crushed into cheap lapels for failing to have his bathrobe ready for him upon exiting the tub.

One of the admittedly few quirks of the hedgehog's personality that he didn't hate entirely had to be his punctuality; whether he wanted him to be or not, Sonic at least was always on time. Therefore, he couldn't help but find it odd how neither he nor his furry sidekick had opted to respond to his demands on this occasion. Normally one or both of them would be stood before him by now, attempting to match wits with his own superior intellect.

"Where the blazes are they?" he muttered, perturbed by the events (or rather, 'lack of') that had transpired.

His fingers rapped against the hull of his craft in an inarticulate rhythm, betraying his annoyance. He growled heatedly and fumbled beneath his seat for the megaphone once again.

"Sonic, are you in there or not?" he spat into the speech receptor. "I'm getting tired of waiting for you, and I am a very busy man! Come on, show yourself!"

Lowering the megaphone he turned his gaze back to the front door, his fingertips creating a steeple as he put his hands together. He didn't want to consider the improbability that he had been wrong.

His waiting paid off finally as the brass door handle turned slowly. Robotnik's exceedingly white teeth were visible beneath his moustache, contrasting with the orange facial hair as he grinned. "So, finally decided to appear, eh?"

Sonic walked out through the doorway onto the step, his shoulders slumped ever so slightly. His fox companion appeared a second later standing with confidence.

"Shoulders," the vulpine whispered loud enough only for his friend to hear. The hedgehog quickly straightened his posture, rearranging his stance into one similar to the other.

"Here we are, Ro-butt-nik!" he challenged. "What do you want?"

The wannabe conqueror raised his eyebrow ever so slightly. "Straight to the point, eh?" he enquired, more to himself than either of the mobians below him. "Very well; if that's the way you want to play it. You two stole something that belongs to me and I want it back!"

"We don't know what you're talking about, egg-man!" Tails countered, folding his arms. He gave a quick flick of his tails upon the back of the hedgehog's legs, causing him to copy the action. "So why don't you beat feet back to your fortress?"

"Don't lie to me, you ignorant little hairball; I know you have it!" Robotnik jeered. "And you had better return it to me, or else!"

"'Or else' what; you're gonna bore us into giving it to you?" the hedgehog said with a snort.

The doctor snarled with rage, gripping tightly upon the brim of his Egg-o-Matic. "Why don't you step closer and I'll show you just how boring I can be!" he threatened.

"Thanks for the offer, doc, but I'm not sure we wanna subject ourselves to your bad breath," the small fox quipped, pinching his nose.

"I'd rather take a walk in a sewer!" the blue mobian concurred.

"That's enough!" Robotnik shouted, his temper flaring. He breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly before leaning over the edge of his vehicle to look the heroic duo in their collective eye. "I am going to offer you an ultimatum, but only for this one time," he said in a comparatively calm quality of voice to the one he usually employed.

Sonic turned to look at his little fox friend, who nodded just enough for him to see but not the doctor above them. "Okay, we're listening," he sighed.

"Hand over the Mind Scrambler, and I won't destroy you today," Robotnik offered. "Give me back what is mine, and I will continue my evil elsewhere. I promise..."

Both Sonic and Tails looked to each other, a slight shake of the head from the vulpine this time. "Sorry, slow-mo; no dice," the blue hedgehog responded. "We all know that you're only capable of breaking promises!"

The despot shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? You know me so well." He pressed a button on the dashboard of his vessel. A compartment opened on the black spherical bottom to the Egg-O-Matic as a putrid green coloured gun barrel slid forth to point in both of the mobians' faces. "At least I'm honest about being dishonest!" he cackled.

Tails pushed Sonic away from him with great force and dived in the opposite direction as a pulse of pure energy fired from the cannon and dispersed upon the stone steps, reducing them to powder. The fox glowered at Robotnik as he picked himself up. "Hey! You could have hurt someone with that!"

"That's the idea!" the mad genius sniggered. "Prepare to meet your maker!"

Another energy blast ploughed through the airways directly for the kit's forehead, only just missing its target when he was forced to the ground by his cyan companion. The pulse pounded against the masonry, splintering the brickwork with a soft hiss which left behind a smoking crater. The vulpine felt himself being dragged from his prone position and into the air as the blue hedgehog exploded into a ferocious running speed, watching as the trees of the Mobius Jungle melted into a smeared cavalcade of green.

"Thanks, Tails!" the fox appraised. "That was a pretty slick move. There's no way he'll be able to resist following us now!"

The blue blur barely turned his head in acknowledgement, worry visible in his eyes. "Sonic, things are getting out of hand! He really almost got you back there!"

"Don't sweat it, keed. I'd never go down that easily!" Sonic the no-longer-hedgehog declared with pride in his voice. "Now what we've gotta do is make sure that Butt-nik is definitely on our tails."

A loud crack echoed from their right, giving the swift footed mobian mere nanoseconds to strafe sideways as a large Red Bush tree groaned under the weight that it could no longer support, and fell onto the dust path with a thunderous '_BOOM'_. Tails and Sonic both cast their attention to the view behind them, watching as Robotnik hurtled after them in his Egg-O-Matic, his face creasing like a paper bag into an ugly snarl.

"...I don't think that's going to be a problem," Tails said, turning back to the path in front.

"You won't escape from me this time, you expeditious spike-ball!" Robotnik bellowed, almost tipping the craft as he leaned forward to shake his fist at them. "I have you right where I want you!"

"Then I say we tip the balance in our favour," Sonic muttered audible only to his companion. "Put on the brakes, buddy!"

Tails dug his heels into the ground, spraying earth into the air and creating a thick dust cloud. Robotnik whooshed forward like a bullet, unable to match their sudden halt much as the former hedgehog predicted, and charged headlong into the fine veil. The stout doctor seemed not to notice that neither Sonic nor Tails were in front of him as he piloted his Egg-O-Matic with fervour ever onward to catch his quarry.

Sonic sniggered as he watched Robotnik bring the acceleration of his vehicle down to a crawl, scanning the horizon for the missing twosome. "Okay, Tails. Let's go take Robo-butt for a little spin. Charge up those sneaks!" he said with a grin.

The ex-fox nodded and revved his feet until they appeared as little more than a red ring, carving a furrow into the ground. Sonic trained his eye upon Robotnik, waiting for the perfect opening to spring their strategy upon the unsuspecting doctor.

"Keep 'em going, pal. Just a little bit faster," he murmured to his best friend.

Tails squinted and ground his teeth together, the powerful legs of Sonic grinding into the ground. The soles of his feet pounded against the earth like a couple of jackhammers as he sought to heighten their increase in velocity, doing his best to keep from running forward. His sneakers began to grow hot and the faint odour of smoke invaded his nostrils, making him wince.

"I can't do this forever, Sonic!" he grunted. "I'm not used to it!"

Sonic patted him on the back to reassure him. "Don't stop, Tails; you're doing great!"

The ex-hedgehog stared impatiently ahead of him, watching as Robotnik scrutinized the trail before him. _Come on, wide-load_, he thought anxiously. _Turn around already!_

His request was granted when Robotnik jerked the steering wheel to his Egg-O-Matic, rotating the vehicle all the while with a surly pout upon his lips.

"Okay, bud. Here we..._go_!" Sonic yelled, pointing his finger toward their target.

Tails finally released the pent up energy that his limbs had been generating, blasting across the ground faster than he had ever thought possible. Sonic's head was thrown back from the accumulated g-forces as the blue hedgehog body propelled forward like a cyan laser, dragging the tops from some of the trees along with them in their slipstream.

The obnoxiously overweight oppressor could barely blink as he witnessed only a blue missile screaming toward his location, trails of fire scorching along behind it.

"What in Mobius?" he wondered briefly, failing to notice until far too late that his craft sat in direct conflict with the approaching object.

As Sonic and Tails neared the vehicle, the ex-hedgehog lifted both of his feet and held them steady before him. He ran the particulars of the next part of his strategy through his mind, judging the possible upcoming consequences of his actions in proportion to their current speed. _Yep, this is gonna hurt,_ he thought with an inward sigh.

As Tails blasted past the Egg-O-Matic, Sonic kicked out at the wing to the ship with both of his sneakers. He yelped as his feet made contact with the stiff metal, but saw that his plan had indeed been successful. The combined momentum of the running strike unbalanced the hovercraft, spinning it like a top. Robotnik cried out in alarm as his vessel revolved a full 360 degrees, twisting full-circle a hundred times in less than fifteen seconds. The thriving jungle environment mixed collectively into a blotchy swirl of greenery that battered his visual senses into submission, making him feel sick all the way to the stomach that had become nestled within his oesophagus.

"Hah! That showed him, huh?" Tails cheered as he forced himself into a standstill.

Sonic put his weight back upon his feet, wincing ever so slightly from the pain in his limbs. "It sure – ouch – did, buddy!"

"Are you okay?" the younger of the two asked with concern evident in his voice.

"Yep – ouch – I'm swell," he replied not altogether convinced himself. The dynamic duo watched in awe as Robotnik continued to rotate with rapidity.

"So, think he's going to stop?" Tails wondered, the sight of the swirling red and grey in front of them giving him a mild headache.

"Probably," Sonic answered with a shrug. "I wouldn't bet on it being a comfy landing, though." The physically former teenager raised his hands to his mouth and cupped them for added volume, turning his attention to Robotnik. "Hey, doc – how are you liking my new _spin_ on things?"

"You pair of rotten reprobates!" Robotnik bawled at the top of his lungs. "When I get my hands on you...!"

"Yeah, yeah; been there, done that and bought the t-shirt," Sonic mocked. "Come on, Tails, let's bail."

"Okay, Sonic."

The (quite-literally) twisted genius could only watch fleetingly as the fox and the hedgehog made a quick getaway. "Hey! Get back here and stop this! I'm getting dizzy!" he screeched to the fleeing mobians. He cursed ferociously. "As soon as I stop, I'll get you, Sonic the..."

He paused for moment. There had been a number of discrepancies in their last exchange that he had only now begun to think about. Tails certainly had come across as a lot more...bold than in previous encounters, and had even beaten Sonic to the punch in countering his own threats. Conversely, the hedgehog himself had appeared a lot more subdued than usual; nowhere near as belligerent as in other battles.

The solution to this riddle slowly began to form in his mind, striking him like a bucket of cold water to the face. The answer had been right in front of him the entire time. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it became that he was indeed correct in his assumptions. How could he not have noticed before?

_So, _Robotnik chuckled softly to himself. _It seems as though Sonic and Tails have had a little mishap with the Mind Scrambler. Most interesting..._

Further analysis of the situation became halted when his Egg-O-Matic finally stopped spinning and dumped him face first onto the ground below with a thump, the vessel tumbling onto its side next to him. He waited a long second for his head to stop spinning before grabbing the communications device from the dashboard.

"Scratch and Grounder, your orders have changed. Bring the 'Egg-O-Matic Eggs-Traction' device to the house of Professor Von Schlemmer immediately!" He snickered as visions of the inventor cast in chains touched his imagination. "I want to teach him a lesson for playing with somebody else's toys..."

"...You've been playing with toys, your playfulness?" Scratch inquired.

Robotnik slapped his palm against his forehead. "Just shut up and get over here now, you clapped-out capon! There isn't a moment to waste!"

END CHAPTER.

**_AN: Ah...it feels almost cathartic to finally upload this chapter! :D Plus; line breaks! Fancy stuff, huh? ;)_**

**_I would like to thank Gryffindor-Sword, Epsilon Team Captain Hande, Kindra Mckleen, LUCiD KNiGHTS, Scyphi, Imaginator11, Moley Fox, The Walls Of Jericho for reviewing and adding to faves or subcriptions! I also want to thank everyone who has been following the story already, and would like to apologise again for its lateness._**

**_I don't know exactly when the next chapter will be up, so I'm not going to be able to suggest a date this time._**

**_Thanks, everyone. Seeyall next time!_**


	7. Chapter 6 (Original)

_**AN: It's been a while, hmm? I'm sorry about that. The details are on my profile page, but just as a quick heads up: the following chapters are drafts that I discovered on a memory stick. I figured I would upload them, give y'all an idea as to what I was doing with this originally, and then somewhere down the line I'll come back and re-write/edit this. At the very least, there will be some sort of conclusion and this story will no longer be sitting in limbo. Apologies if it seems rough (and for the lengthy Author's Note!).**_

**_Okay, then. Here we go!_**

**Mind Over Matter**

**Chapter Six (Original Version)**

"Keep going, Sonic! You've almost got it!" Tails shouted in encouragement.

"Really? Because it sure don't feel like it!" the former hedgehog replied through grit teeth, spinning the two tails at the base of his spine with furious determination.

The two had returned to the Mobius Salt Plains to ensure that they had no unwanted interruptions during their training. Tails had been attempting to teach Sonic to hover above the ground in a similar way to himself for the last half an hour. In all honesty, he felt that the former hedgehog was doing exceptionally well for a beginner. It had taken the fox himself a good number of days and crash landings to master basic flight when he was younger, so Sonic's progress within the space of 30 minutes was nothing short of astounding. However, there seemed to be something about his technique that just wasn't working for him.

"Try keeping your weight forward," Tails suggested, wondering if it was a distribution issue. "That way, your body won't be fighting against the lift when it happens."

Sonic closed his eyes tight and pushed his unfamiliar body to work even harder. A trickle of sweat made its way from his brow to his nose.

_Just a little faster! Just a little harder!_

His struggles began to pay off as his posterior slowly began to rise, lifting his legs until the tips of his sneakers brushed against the dusty surface.

"That's it!" Tails cried out with joy. "You've done it!"

Sonic gasped with relief and untwisted the tails, landing back on his feet. "Phew! About time!" he said with a smile.

Tails walked over to him. "You should've seen it, Sonic! You actually rose up into the air like me!"

"Well, I had to get it eventually, didn't I?" the now-fox grinned with confidence, offering a raised thumb. "Speaking of which, how about you show me your Triple Spin?"

The now-hedgehog groaned. "Again? We've already tried it ten times! I can't do it!"

"Hey now, no need to look so blue," Sonic chuckled at the bad pun. "Your spin wasn't that bad."

Tails pointed to a fresh bruise between his ears. "Tell that to my head."

"You mean, _my_ head," Sonic corrected him.

"Um, yeah. Sorry about that," the cub mumbled, remembering that his current body was not in fact his. "It doesn't hurt that bad, honest. At least I don't think its gonna leave a mark or anything."

"Don't worry about it," the hero of Mobius said, waving the apology aside with his hand. "I think you should try again, though. Trust me, I've got a good feeling about this one."

Tails swallowed his nerves and crouched down onto his hands and knees. "If you say so, Sonic."

The cub in mind but not body concentrated all of his stamina into making sure that his legs were primed to launch him forward, and that his quills were tense enough to offer the correct amount of resistance against the surface. Too much and he would just carve a tunnel into the ground, and too little would mean that he'd simply roll over onto his back. Though neither of them quite understood the science behind the manoeuvre, Sonic had described it as 'shooting a ball inside a pinball machine'.

"_You've gotta build up some force, and then push off the floor as if you're jumping_," he had said. "_But remember, don't let fear hold ya back. The second a doubt enters your mind, you'll stall, and I don't have to tell you how mondo uncool it is to land on your head_."

Visions of inevitable failure began to dance mockingly before his mind's eye as soon as his brain had finished repeating these words. The kit furrowed his brow, willing the images to disappear. He couldn't back down now.

_Okay then. Here goes nothing_.

Tails closed his eyes and forced his feet against the floor, pushing his body into a somersault.

He didn't dare take a look at the world around him for fear of uncurling out of his spin. He could feel dust collecting in the thin strands of smooth blue fur as his body tumbled forward across the Salt Plains. The velocity he was travelling at surprised him more than anyone.

_I'm doing it! _he thought. _I'm really doing it!_

His momentary lack of focus was all that was needed to throw his body out of synch. His body began to wobble as he leaned too far to one side, his legs and arms spilled out of position, and the momentum catapulted him flat onto his back.

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic called, running over to him. "You all right?"

"Uh..." the former fox groaned, holding his head. "I'm think I'm okay, Sonic. How did I do?"

Sonic helped him to his feet. "Well, it could have been a lot worse. At least you moved forward this time."

The bruise on top of Tails' head throbbed angrily at being reminded of this previous try. "I guess," he mumbled. "I still don't get why I've gotta learn how to do this, anyway."

"It's important that you do, keed. You heard the professor; he said that it could take ages for him to fix that pile of junk."

"Yeah, but-"

"Tails," Sonic said, a rare hint of seriousness creeping into the laid back delivery of his voice. "Trust me on this. It's better that you're able to bust some robot chops if you need to than not, y'know?"

Though the former hedgehog wouldn't say it, he was concerned. If the Badniks didn't know about their little accident, then that would mean Tails would become their prime target instead of him. He wanted to make sure that his young companion was able to defend himself in some way. If he couldn't go toe-to-toe, at least he could hold them off long enough for him to make an escape.

"Okay, Sonic. I'll keep trying," Tails promised, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe the next one will be better."

"Cool," the now-fox replied simply. "In that case, what say we-"

Their conversation was forcefully abandoned as the echo of what appeared to be a large object falling to the ground splashed through the air, throwing the dry musty sand upward as heavy reverberations pounded the earth beneath their feet.

"What was that?" the former kit asked.

Sonic squinted his eyes slightly as two particular characters came to mind. "I don't know, but I've got a pretty good idea who's behind it."

"Scratch and Grounder?" Tails asked, already knowing the answer.

"Who else?" Sonic grinned. "Of course, it could just have been Robotnik tripping over himself, but that woulda registered at least an 8.9 on the Richter scale."

Tails giggled at his friend's joke. "So, what should we do?"

The used-to-be-teen speedster turned to look at his partner, the unmistakable glint of adventure burning in his eyes. "It sounds like they're causing trouble back in Metropolis. I say we go make it difficult for 'em."

"What?" Tails blurted out, eyebrows raised. "But Sonic, we can't go like this! How are we going to beat them if we're not in control of our own bodies?"

"No problemo. I'll think of something - I usually do," Sonic replied, thumb to his chest. He raised a hand into the air, striking a heroic pose. "Besides, you know as well as I do that a hero's work is never done! We've gotta go; own body or not."

Sonic offered his arm out to Tails. The former fox grabbed hold of it tightly and revved his feet in a way that he had seen his hero do so many times before. "Okay then, Sonic! Up, Over, and Gone!"

"Hey! That's _my_ line!" the now fox laughed incredulously as the two of them took off in the direction of the hulking city.

xXxXx

A short, bespectacled cat dressed in a black casual suit was forced to dive to the concrete as a large object pounded against the footpath where once he stood. Quivering with fright, he turned to see what had attacked him.

The object appeared to be a robust, metallic block attached to a chain. Raising his head to cast terrified eyes upon the perpetrator, he saw that the weapon was attached to an egg shaped capsule that looked big enough only to hold one individual, with two identical chicken-like robotic legs on either side of the vessel to hold it aloft.

With a mechanical creak, the chain began to reel back into the construction, tugging the weight up with it into the air. The cat desperately scrambled to his own feet as the hammer shaped block of metal was driven into the floor once more, spraying shards of rock into the air.

Scratch guffawed with delight as he saw the terrified Mobian run screaming into the distance. "What's the matter? Are things getting too _heavy_ for you?" He laughed.

Grounder sniggered as he commanded a similar machine to kick its heavy legs against a building wall, causing it to splinter apart and collapse. "Yeah! Don't you want to play with us any more? We were just getting started!""

The robotic rooster prodded at the dashboard before him, smiling like a cybernetic child in an industrial maintenance service department. "Boy, it sure was nice of Dr. Robotnik to let us use these Walker Stomper things of his - they're great!"

Grounder nodded in agreement, before realizing that his brother couldn't see him. "You've got that right, Scratch - I don't even remember the last time that I had so much fun!"

"I wouldn't say that so soon, dumb-blocks!" a distressingly recognizable voice called out to them. The two Badniks turned, wide-eyed, to get a glance at this new speaker, hoping that it wasn't who they thought it was.

But, of course it was.

Tails stood before them with hands resting on his hips and a smirk on his face. Sonic too was positioned beside him imitating the stance (and secretly showing the former fox how best to act like he would in such a situation). "In fact, I'd say the party is just getting started!"

"It's the hedgehog!" the hench-bots screeched simultaneously. "Don't let him get away!"

Scratch wrenched a lever on the vehicle's control panel and stabbed at a couple of switches with his elongated fingers, lifting one of the machine's legs into the air. The rooster then brought the weighted foot down into the ground hard. Dust momentarily clouded his vision as he waited to see how flat the hedgehog would be upon the pavement.

Sonic whistled to draw the attention of both Badniks away from the dust cloud to where the fox and he were both standing unscathed. "Gonna have to do better than that, bolt-butts!" he said, tapping his foot expectantly and folding his arms.

Scratch growled and hammered every button in front of him in anger. "Oh yeah? Then let's see how you like this!"

A cylindrical cannon emerged from a slot beneath the Walker Stomper capsule, and fired a blast of energy at the two heroes.

The hedgehog grabbed the young cub and pulled him out of harm's way as the laser bolt melted the concrete upon impact. Hot, sizzling jets of electricity rained upon the asphalt as the two freedom fighters weaved across the street in a zig-zag pattern, dodging the discharges launched at them from the machine. Something told Sonic that their little acting master class wasn't going to get them out of this one.

Grounder activated a similar weapon and joined his twin. Both of them kept blasting in the direction of where the hedgehog had been, the cobalt master of faster keeping his feet just ahead of the potholes that were splitting the road behind him as a result of the laser fire.

"Left!" the Sonic the fox hollered, drawing his partner's attention to an upcoming building in front of them. Tails stopped running and twisted both of their bodies in said direction, using the speed to slide the two Mobians past the obstacle. He looked back as he resumed pumping his legs, hopeful that this action would have left their pursuers behind.

No such luck. Laser fire continued to hail down on their location, reducing the masonry that blocked the heroes from its deadly rays into little more than waterfalls of liquid concrete and crumbling brick.

"Rats! Those things must have speed detectors!" the former hedgehog muttered.

Before Tails could reply, both of their ears were drawn to a scream. A young, female hedgehog with pink fur was running as fast as she could to escape from the falling rubble that was descending upon her. The former kit sprinted into the path of the heavy chunks of stone and scooped the young hedgehog into his arms. The three of them watched as the stone broke apart against the road, scattering heavy chunks across it and leaving a crack in the asphalt.

"Are you okay?" Tails asked, putting her back on her feet.

The female hedgehog straightened her red hair band and repositioned her spikes. "Y-Yes," she replied, shaking.

"Okay, then. Well, we've gotta be on our-"

The air was knocked out of his body as the hedgehog squashed him in her arms. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said with joy. "How can I ever repay you?"

The frightened hero in training struggled to speak against the surprising force being applied to his ribs. ribs. "Well, there's really no-"

"I can't believe that I was just rescued by the Sonic the hedgehog!" she continued, oblivious to his attempts to leave.

"Uh... I'm really not-"

"Hmm. I've got to think of an appropriate way to thank you," she thought out loud.

Tails continued to struggle against the hedgehog's arms. Man, she was freakishly strong! "Honestly, you don't need to-"

"Wait," she said softly, placing both hands upon his muzzle to keep his head still. "I know."

She tugged hard upon Tails' face, pulling it in line with her own, and pressed her lips against his with great enthusiasm. The cub's eyes widened in horror at this action, as Sonic stared in amazement at the spectacle. The pink hedgehog released him and batted her eyelashes playfully with a giddy smile upon her face.

"Well, goodbye, Sonic! My hero!" she said skipping away from them. As soon as she was out of sight, Tails began to furiously wipe his mouth with the back of his paw.

"Gross!" he spluttered, rubbing his muzzle in eagerness to remove any trace of what had just transpired. "Girls are icky! Hey, Sonic, what's so funny?"

"Nothing," the teen hero said, lips trembling in his effort to not laugh. "Let's keep going."

"Okay."

"Unless you want to go back and ask her for her number?"

"_Sonic!_"

"Hey, just looking out for you, dude. Besides," he winked, "she's kinda cute."

Tails frowned at his amused friend. "That's not funny."

"Sorry. Couldn't help myself," Sonic replied. "Let's go deal with those walking reject piles before they cause any more damage."

Tails made sure to run directly into the Badniks' line of sight, under Sonic's instructions to ensure that they were the only targets, before applying more speed to lead them away from the still retreating civilians. The diversion worked as Scratch and Grounder immediately began to fire their weapons at them once again.

"Now they're back on us again. Where can we go?" Tails asked concerned.

"Where else can you go when creeps are getting you down?" Sonic asked, not fazed by their predicament. "Head down town - it looks like everyone has gone now." He thought for a microsecond. "Plus, I think they've opened up a new store or two that could be worth checking out."

The fox made a U-turn and dashed down a road behind the two pursuing wrecking mechanisms. Scratch clucked with laughter at what he perceived to be a last-ditch escape attempt.

"Trying to run, huh? Well, I'll make sure you don't get away so easily!"

The robotic duo turned their vehicles to face their prey, the gargantuan pistons in their legs creaking in protest at the rough treatment wrought upon them by their drivers. The concrete shook beneath the crushing weight of both contraptions as they thundered down the road, eager to intercept the small forms in front of them. Tails proceeded as best as he could, but he knew that he was no match for Robotnik's inventions. Ironically, the only one who would have been able to defeat them was being carried by him at this very minute. As he ran, blood began to rush to his head and his legs increasingly felt as though they were navigating through a thick lake of treacle. _Not now! _he thought desperately. _Why now?_

"We've gotta do something - I'm beginning to get tired here!" the now hedgehog puffed, trying his hardest to maintain speed. "Pretty soon I'm gonna have to slow down!"

The hedge-fox thought carefully over his friend's chosen words. He had been contemplating the exact same thing, and now he believed he had an answer. "Slow down...that's it! Great idea, keed!"

"Huh?"

One of the laser bolts vaporized the base of a wooden telephone pole, sending it crashing through the window of an office block.

"Tails, you see that?" Sonic asked, pointing at the mess in front of them. The used-to-be fox looked ahead to see that the pole had created a bridge leading up into the building. "Head up there, quick!"

Driving his legs to pound upon the street harder than he ever had before, Tails forced the sore hedgehog body to mount the fallen pylon and jump through the shattered pane of glass.

The hedgehog sat on the floor, breathing heavily, as the fox watched Scratch and Grounder search the area beneath them in confusion. He exhaled a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"They didn't see us. Good thing they're not bright enough to look above 'em. How are ya holding up, keed?" Sonic asked.

Tails struggled to fill his lungs with the necessary oxygen, choosing to reply instead by pinching his thumb and forefinger together. This little acting job they were putting on was more tiring than either had anticipated.

"Hang on for a little longer, big guy. You're doing great," the hero of Mobius comforted him. Privately, Sonic was glad that the robots hadn't seen through their ruse, though he knew that they would not be able to keep it going for much longer. The two of them had to find a way to send the Badniks running before Tails or he made a mistake and revealed themselves.

He looked through the window they had used to gain access to the building, noticing the long cable that had been adjoined to the pylon was severed from the rest of the wooden post. He smiled.

"Tails, just do exactly as I say. I've got an idea." He stretched the two tails behind him out to their full length. "And I think I'm gonna need these guys to do it."

xXxXx

"Where are they?" Grounder complained. "They're not supposed to hide from us - that's cheating!"

"Oh, quit whining!" Scratch shouted back at him. He didn't see a small brown furred figure fly down between the legs of his Walker Stomper, holding a length of thick cable. "Those two pipsqueaks have got to be around here somewhere, so keep searching!"

"But, what if we can't find them?" the tank robot asked, similarly oblivious to the same brown furred figure moving between the legs of his destruction machine with the same cable.

"Then I'll tell Dr. Robotnik that it was _your_ fault you lost them!" his companion yelled. The brown furred figure moved beneath his vehicle once again.

"What? _You_ lost them! _You_ were the one who let them escape!" Grounder retorted. The brown figure moved beneath his vehicle once more also.

"No, you were the one who let them escape!"

"You let me let them escape!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did-"

"Guys, please, can we continue this later?" Sonic asked, standing in front of their Walker Stomper crafts. "I'm growing a beard, here!"

The mechanical duo gazed at the small fox, as a lioness studies its next meal. They whooped with laughter.

"You're mine now, fuzzball!" Scratch squawked with delirious joy, thumping his fist into the control panel of his machine.

"Nu-uh! You're _mine_, now!" Grounder argued, slapping the palm of his selected hand into the dashboard of his vehicle.

As both Walker Stompers attempted to raise their legs to squash their target, the heavy limbs struggled against the few feet of cable that had been wrapped around them.

The fox simply looked on as the two monstrosities wobbled precariously. "It may be an old one, but it still works every time."

Scratch and Grounder both knew that there was no way to go but down.

"Abandon ship!" Grounder cried, opening the capsule to his walker and leaping to the street below. "Every robot for themselves!"

"Wait for me!" Scratch screamed as he too exited his vehicle.

Both Badniks ran as fast as their gears could carry them, craning their necks to make sure that their ill-balanced vehicles weren't about to crush them. As part of Sonic's plan, Tails tugged a long stretch of cable across the street that the robots were travelling down at great speed.

"Hey guys. Remember me?" he said, pulling the cable taut.

The robots were unable to prevent themselves from stopping as they ran into the cable, which tripped them quite spectacularly. The tin twins cried out in shock as they sailed through the air, landing in a jumbled heap on the road.

"Timber!" Sonic shouted as the unoccupied vehicles finally began to fall through the air.

Both of the constructed nightmares ever so slowly teetered backwards before the full force of gravity pulled them down on top of the long suffering hench bots, burying them beneath several tons of metal.

Tails jogged over to his friend, arms held up in celebration of their victory. "Way to go, Sonic! That'll teach 'em, huh?" he praised.

Sonic shrugged off the compliments. "Ah, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Just 'cause I can't be quick on my feet doesn't mean that my brain has to follow." He tapped his temple for emphasis.

"What should we do now?" the young hero in training questioned. He massaged his aching legs. "We can't do that again so soon after the last time."

"Hmm," Sonic mumbled, resting his hand against his chin. "I think we ought to go back to the professor. This one was a little _too_ close."

Tails offered a hand for his friend to take hold of. "I hope he can change us back to normal soon."

Sonic nodded in agreement, kicking a loose piece of stone away from his sneaker. "Me too, bro, so let's juice it loose!"

xXxXx

Unfortunately for the two of them, neither Mobian saw the remains of several well hidden cameras watching them from the wreckage of the machines they left behind.

The chiming ringtone of Grounder's chest phone buzzed gratingly in Scratch's hearing receptors. He slowly reached up to the body of his brother, who was lying on top of him, and extracted the communications device from its hold.

"Hello?" he said, picking up on the more nasal tone that his vocal processor was producing. Looking down, he saw that his beak had become pressed flat into his face like a pancake. Scratch straightened the beak with his hand. "Hello?" he said again with his regular voice.

"Scratch? What are you doing answering the phone? Where's Grounder?" Robotnik bellowed. "Never mind that. Did the hedgehog arrive?"

"Yes, your loudness," the cyber rooster replied, holding his head.

"Good!" the spherical dictator said, sounding pleased. "And did you manage to record everything that took place?"

"Well, uh..." Grounder began before Scratch covered his mouth with his hand.

"You had better be stalling to think of the perfect way to phrase your reply, or else I will be most displeased," the doctor growled.

"We were able to record everything, your angriness," the rooster stammered.

"Good!" the rotund dictator replied, sounding pleased. "Now, pull yourself together and get back here. I'm going to confirm my suspicions."

xXxXx

Robotnik slammed the phone down and watched his monitor. Video footage of his despised enemies' most recent battle against his Badniks was displayed on the large panoramic screen, having been streaming in real time from a series of devices contained within the Walker Stompers. As the video played, the villainous genius reached for a carton of popcorn that he had prepared, covering the contents with a humongous spoonful of scrambled eggs that he had readied at the same time. Settling into his chair, Robotnik carefully studied the film, scanning for a sign of anything that could shed light (or darkness, if you prefer) upon his theories.

After several cringe inducing minutes of watching his scientific creations be outwitted by the two small mammals, most of which he tried to skip past with varying degrees of success, the footage arrived at the point where Sonic and Tails were preparing to leave Metropolis.

"_I think we ought to go back to the professor. Maybe this one was a little close_," Tails suggested.

"_I hope he can change us back to normal soon_," Sonic replied.

"_Me too, bro,_" the fox agreed, "so _let's juice it loose!_"

The corpulent conqueror scooped a big fistful of popcorn from the carton and greedily shoved it into his awaiting jaws.

_Careless, hedgehog,_ Robotnik thought to himself, savouring the taste of his snack with a grin. _Very careless._

**_END CHAPTER  
><em>**

**_Hope that wasn't too painful. This is Chapter 6 as I originally wrote it (before I changed a bunch of stuff and ultimately shot myself in the foot as a result). Thanks for checking it out!_**


	8. Chapter 7 (Draft): Team Fortress

_**AN: Here's the original Chapter 7. Hope you enjoy!**_

**Mind Over Matter**

**Chapter Seven (Draft)**

The two furred heroes made quick progress through the twisting maze of tall trees that made up the Mobius Jungle, and soon arrived back at the house of Professor Von Schlemmer.

Sonic released his hold of Tails' hand and shook his head in an effort to recollect his bearings. His brain felt as though it was rattling around like a collection of loose marbles in a washing machine.

"How are you feeling, Sonic?" his best friend inquired of him, watching with mild amusement.

"Like a sack of potatoes," he replied dryly. It was strange that he had never considered before now just how odd it felt to have your body dragged behind someone running in excess of the speed of sound. "Next time we do that, I'm gonna insist on getting a cart to sit in."

"Oh, come on, Sonic! I'm getting better!" the young freedom fighter pouted.

That much, at least, was true. Sonic felt a swell of pride in his chest. Tails had managed to improve his control over the sheer speed now available to him in his new body, and in such a short amount of time too. If there was one thing that he could say for the former fox, it was that the kid was determined to be as good as he could be, no matter what he was doing. Being a quality that Sonic too possessed made the pride for his younger bro all the more prevalent.

"I guess I can't argue with that," he agreed, noticing the small smile that reached his companion's muzzle at these words. "Now, let's go inside and see if the professor has finished repairing that ray-gun thing we dropped off earlier. I don't know about you, but I'm about to pass out from the heat that all this extra fur is generating."

Tails chuckled, following his best friend to the front door of the small house before them.

Extending his fist, the back of his knuckles rapped sharply against the wooden surface as Sonic knocked. "Hey, Professor Von Schlemmer, we're back!" he called.

There was no answer. The former hedgehog uttered an exaggerated groan.

"Oh man, not this again," he muttered to himself. He cupped his hands around his mouth and leaned in closer to the door. "It's Sonic and Tails!" he called. The professor still had yet to reply. He sighed and ran a hand down his face. "Where are you stuck this time?" Their shock-haired ally seemed to have a bizarre ability to get stuck in all manner of places. It was almost par for the course when the two of them called in on him.

As Sonic tried unsuccessfully to rouse a response from the professor, Tails walked around to the side of the house to see if he could spot him through a window. He circled the building and found one such viewpoint at the very back, though it was particularly filthy. Presumably the various fumes and whatnot from multiple experiments had accumulated to create the dirt that covered it. He used his lightly furred arm to wipe away some of the grime from the small pane of glass and pressed his nose against it, snorting when some of the particles entered his nose. From what he could see of it, the place was empty. Though, perhaps 'abandoned' would have been a more appropriate choice of word.

He noticed that a circular stream of light had filtered into the room through part of the ceiling, positioned over a section of the professor's workbench. Curious. Tails stepped away from the house, and decided to tell Sonic what he saw. As he took a passing glance back at the window, his eyes widened in revelation as they focused on a large hole that had been opened up in the roof.

"Uh, Sonic?" he called out. "I think you should take a look at this."

Moments later, the (until recently) blue hero came to a stop beside him. "Take a look at what?"

Tails pointed his finger toward the roof. "That," he said simply.

Sonic turned and eyed the damage that had been done to the top of the house. He whistled in surprise. "Looks like the professor tried to do a little home improvement!"

"Do you think it was one of his experiments?" Tails queried. "I remember when we had to pull his head out of the ceiling after that jet pack he was testing malfunctioned."

Sonic narrowed his eyes slightly. "Somehow, I don't think that's what happened this time. Something about this smells rotten with a capital 'R'. Let's see if there are any answers inside."

The duo jogged back to the front of the house. Sonic twisted the brass handle of the door before them and gently pushed it open. It wasn't locked.

Though the majority of the room appeared to have been unchanged, the two heroes could see just how much damage had been caused to the top of the house. Thick clouds of dust accompanied falling pieces of plaster as they dropped from the ceiling, and chunks of shattered roof tiles were laid beneath the opening in an uneven jigsaw.

"Professor? Are you here?" Sonic asked of the room as if it would provide an answer.

Unsurprisingly, there was no reply, muffled or otherwise.

Tails walked over to the workbench that he had spotted earlier through the window and brushed aside the debris smothered on top of it. He recognized it as the surface that Professor Von Schlemmer had laid the pieces of the broken Mind Scrambler upon when they brought it to him.

"Sonic, we've got a problem!" he called out.

"Don't tell me," Sonic said, holding up a hand to quieten him. "The mind gun is gone, right?"

Tails nodded. Sonic crossed his arms and snorted at the confirmation.

"I thought so. Buttnik must have come back here while we were kicking tail in Metropolis, kidnapped the professor, and took the mind gun with him." He rested a hand against his forehead as the pieces came together. The battle against Scratch and Grounder probably provided him with the perfect diversion.

"What do we do now?" Tails asked, his voice displaying the urgency he felt. "Without the mind thingy, we'll be stuck like this forever!"

"There's no need to panic just yet," the hero replied. He paused for a moment and nodded to himself before continuing. "I've got an idea, but you ain't gonna like it."

"What is it?" the young hero asked. His eyes unwillingly narrowed in trepidation.

Sonic smirked and spoke with unwavering self-belief. "We're gonna break into Robotnik's fortress."

Tails stared at him for a long couple of seconds. "...I don't like it."

"I told ya so."

"But Sonic, how are we gonna do that?" the kit exclaimed. "What if they know that we aren't ourselves right now? We barely got away the last time, and we'll be walking right in to Robotnik's hands!"

"We can do it," Sonic said, reassuring him. "Just 'cause Lard-belly is holding the cards this time doesn't make the game impossible to win. If anything, I think we could play them in our favour."

"How so?" Tails asked. Sonic shook his head and grabbed his friend's hand.

"No time to yack, Jack. We've gotta boogie!" The hero winked. "Come on, I'll explain it on the way."

xXxXx

Dusk had started to settle around the fortress of despised despot Dr. Robotnik. The mad genius himself sat in a large soft chair, dressed in a long pink dressing gown with matching nightcap and slippers, his feet resting upon a large, green, metallic footstool of some sort. He scrunched his eyebrows together as he scanned the local newspaper for any information on his evildoings. After all, as far as he was concerned, a good tyrant was a published tyrant.

Seconds later, he threw the paper away from him in disgust. "Bah!" he grunted. "Not one single complaint. You'd think these people didn't appreciate the effort that I was putting in to make their lives miserable!"

"Well, you are trying to take over the planet, your heavy footed-ness," Grounder reasoned from his position beneath his master's ankles.

"Silence!" Robotnik responded, lifting his foot and forcing it down on to the robot's back with a dull 'clang'. He ignored his lackey's yelp of pain and shifted his body slightly to lean toward the door in to the room. "Scratch! Where is my hot beverage?"

"Coming, sir!" the cyber rooster replied with haste, carrying a large china mug on a silver tray. He jogged over to the spherical mass of humanity, trying his best not to wince as he saw the chair preparing to buckle in protest at the applied weight of his creator, and promptly tripped up over the doctor's adopted footstool.

Robotnik hollered in surprise as the mug and its contents splashed against his face, soaking his bushy moustache in hot liquid. Scratch watched in absolute terror as the warm fluid dripped from the man's drooping facial hair. He could already see the ramifications for his mistake inside of his head. The robots' angry master stood from his chair, appearing to tower over the two of them.

"You had better find a good hiding spot," he growled, "because when I get a hold of you, I'm going to pluck each of your tail feathers, coat you in flour, and deep fry you in a vat of boiling oil."

He grabbed the chicken by the shoulders, and pressed his bulbous nose against the robot's beak. "_With eleven herbs and spices_!" he shouted at the terrified fowl.

Before any kind of culinary punishment could commence, all three of them were distracted by an alarm bell ringing in their ears. Robotnik waddled over to his computer monitor, as fast as his short legs could manage.

"What is it now?" he asked aloud to himself, fingers tapping various buttons on the monitor's accompanying keyboard.

"It sounded like the early warning system, sir," Scratch ventured. He was dealt a backhand blow to the head for his trouble by his irate master.

"I know that, imbecile!" Robotnik screeched. "I want to know what it was that set it off!"

A few more buttons pressed later activated a direct feed from one of the fortress' many security cameras. Robotnik looked up at the screen and gasped.

_No. It can't be..._ He looked again.

Standing outside of the gigantic building that the grotesque conqueror called his base of operations were the two young troublemakers who had foiled his plans for so long. Both of them were surrounded by a squadron of guard-bots. The tall androids that he had created to protect his home, wearing even taller hats upon their heads, had Sonic and Tails cornered. Both of the little troublemakers had their hands up in the air as each of the bots pointed high-capacity laser rifles at them.

Robotnik howled with laughter. "This is too good to be true! Those two fools must have discovered that their friend was missing, and decided to try and rescue him!"

He leaned over to an intercom system that had been implanted into a wall beside the computer monitor and activated it. "Bring those two 'heroes' to my private chambers now!" his voice boomed over the loudspeakers, Scratch and Grounder grinding their teeth from the squealing feedback that accompanied it. He wrapped his hands together in excitement, thinking over the possibilities. "I wish to discuss their accommodation...their permanent accommodation!"

He watched with delight as the two Mobians were dragged to their ordered destination, taking great pleasure at the expressions of doom painted on both of their faces.

xXxXx

Sonic and Tails struggled fruitlessly against the chains and padlock that they had been tied up with, feeling the cold unforgiving material cutting into their wrists and ankles. Both of them were sitting on the floor of a cold chamber, constructed from metal sheets that had been riveted to the walls and converged into a dome above them. The room was completely bare, with no furniture that they could see and no windows. The only light that entered the chamber was courtesy of one sole bulb dangling from a thin wire several feet above their heads. The only way in or out of the room was through a solitary steel door.

After a few seconds, the door opened. Sonic nestled a deep scowl across his eye ridges as Robotnik strode into the room, chest puffed out before him to ridiculous proportions. The door closed behind him, leaving the three of them alone. The mad genius walked around the heroes in a circle, his hands clasped firmly behind his back and with a spring in his step. Glued to his face was an exceptionally wide and malicious smile, separated by more teeth than should be possible for one mouth to contain. Clearly, he was enjoying this.

"Well, now," Robotnik started. He made sure that each syllable he spoke was exaggerated to ridiculous proportions to provide the appropriate mockery with which to relish this situation. "What have we here? If it isn't Sonic-" he looked at the hedgehog, followed by the fox "-and Tails."

He paused for a moment. "Or, should that be Tails-"he looked at the hedgehog once again, followed by the fox "-and Sonic? He snickered softly to himself. "You didn't really believe that I wouldn't find out about your little 'accident', did you?"

"Find out what, Egg-man?" the hedgehog snarled. Robotnik simply laughed louder.

"Oh, come now, Tails. There's no need to maintain this charade any longer," he belittled. "I have been aware for some time that both of you are not who you claim to be."

Sonic snorted. "You think its gonna make a difference? I could beat ya even if I was trapped inside _your_ body!"

Robotnik leaned against a wall and twiddled his thumbs, grinning. "I won't deny that you have a certain 'knack' for escaping from me, but this time will be very different."

He stepped forward and began to walk in circles around his captives. "I will also admit that it has been somewhat entertaining over these last few years, playing these little games of yours. In a way, I think I'll miss having you as a sparring partner against which I can test my latest creations," he sniffed dramatically. "But in a more realistic way, I am going to immensely enjoy your assured destruction now that you two are my prisoners."

"Again with the monologue, Blob-nik?" Sonic sighed. "Why don't you give your mouth a break for once, ya bloated windbag, and tell us what you want already?"

"Oh, it's not a case of what I want, spike-ball. I already have that." He grinned with glee at the two heroes. "Now it's all about what I am going to do to Mobius with you two out of the way. Perhaps I'll decimate Mobius' capital and build a theme park on top of it."

"A theme park? _You_?" Tails repeated in disbelief.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Sonic agreed. "Usually people are only meant to feel sick _after_ going on the rides, not before."

Robotnik huffed like a child at this display. "Fine, it was just an idea! I don't even know why I should listen to you two, anyway. You'll never stop me from using my mind scrambling device to achieve my desires!"

"But wasn't that thing broken earlier?" Tails asked, confused. The doctor snorted as though he considered answering the question beneath him. Though, everyone knew that he would do so anyway.

"All you managed to do was destroy my prototype," The tyrant retorted with a sneer. "This one is a much more exciting prospect. You see-"

"Oh, great. Here we go with another one of his speeches," Sonic groaned, rolling his eyes at Tails. "Anytime for a Chili Dog before ya start, doc? I don't want to have to wait until tomorrow before I can eat again."

The former fox giggled at the remark whilst the chubby despot stamped his foot in a most immature manner at having been interrupted.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to explain my master plan!" Robotnik snarled through clenched teeth. "Now, as I was saying. This newer version of the Mind Scrambler is not simply a handheld weapon; it is an intercontinental blasting device with a radius that encompasses the entire planet! One press of a button-" he lifted a finger and prodded it against his palm to simulate a button press "-and the entire population of this ghastly ball of rock will be subservient only to me."

"And just how are you gonna do that, huh? Bore 'em to submission?" Sonic wondered out loud.

Robotnik crossed his arms. "Do you want to hear the rest of my incomprehensibly intelligent evil scheme, or not?"

"Show of hands?" the hero suggested.

"That's it!" Robotnik snapped, at the end of his patience. "Ridicule me all you like, rodent. As soon as I have finished building the Mind Scrambler, I will use it to fulfil my ambitions, and you two are powerless to stop me!"

The evil genius snapped his fingers. The steel door swung open to allow his two loyal hench-bots to enter the room. "Take these two to the deepest, darkest, rankest prison cell that I have available!" he commanded. "And if no such cell exists, build one!

"Yes, your unreasonableness," the Badniks replied with a salute before grabbing Sonic and Tails by their bonds, and hauling them out through the door way.

Robotnik couldn't resist calling out to the two do-gooders as they were dragged away. "Perhaps if you're lucky, I'll keep you here after your minds have been wiped to become my personal servants. But for now, I have a civilization to enslave."

Wasting no time, the doctor too exited the room and made his way back to his lab to finish constructing the planetary weapon. He couldn't believe how good a day today had become. To think, it had started off so badly. He chuckled jovially as he imagined the numerous terrors that he could administer to his furry little guests once he was ruler of the world.

After so many years of trying to take over the planet, things were finally starting to go his way.

xXxXx

The robotic duo dragged the two bound Mobians down three flights of stone steps before finally arriving at the dungeon complex beneath the main fortress atrium. Scratch turned a key inside of the old fashioned deadbolt that had been fixed to the main door, carved from a solid slab of Mobian Oak (the material well known for its durability). The door opened with a protesting squeal from its hinges, making Tails' sensitive ears twitch. A strong odour hit both heroes' nostrils, provoking an involuntary twitch of disgust at the stale scent from Sonic.

Grounder smirked as he regarded the prisoners. "Welcome to your new home, hedgehog and fox-brat."

The Badniks led the hedgehog and fox inside the main room; a dark, miserable enclosure with no windows to allow sunlight. A low level of brightness was provided by a series of flaming torches that spread out across the top of the walls, though they looked to have been designed to minimise the burn so the room was still fairly dark. Excess moisture lent the walls a disgusting, slimy texture that neither of the captives were eager to check out. Standing before them in the centre was one large cage, with numerous vertical and horizontal metal bars making up the walls and roof. The floor also appeared to be metallic, though this took the form of a large solid block instead, which was surprisingly shiny against the miserable backdrop that befell the rest of the prison. Scratch and Grounder opened the lock to the cage and shoved the heroes inside, forcing the smaller fox body to hit the floor with a thump.

Scratch sniggered as Tails helped Sonic to stand. "So, how do you like the place, hmm?"

"Well, the rooms aren't to my expectations, and the staff? Dumb beyond all reason," Sonic quipped, dusting himself off. "We want to see the manager!"

"You're not going to be seeing anyone for a good long time, Sonic!" Grounder sneered. He slammed the cage door and locked it. "See you in a few hundred years!"

The Badnik twosome stepped outside of the prison chamber, laughing with all their cardiovascular pump mechanisms, and slammed the door shut behind them. Sonic waited for their footsteps to die away before choosing to speak again.

"So far, so good."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Sonic," Tails said quietly.

"No sweat," the teen replied with confidence. "I knew he wouldn't be able to resist putting us in such an easy to escape cell. The guy wants to rub it in our faces that we're helpless." He smirked to his buddy and winked. "We'll show him that we're anything but!"

Their conversation became interrupted by a tired voice that spoke out to them from the shadows of the cell, making Tails jump with surprise. "Sonic? Tails? Is that you, or am I just imagining things again?"

Sonic looked on with relief as the erstwhile Professor Von Schlemmer stepped out from the relative safety of darkness that the prison cell had in abundance. His lab coat was spattered with a black greasy substance of some sort, and his hair was not quite so straight as it had been when last they met, but he appeared to be unharmed.

"Professor!" Tails exclaimed with a smile. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine...I think," he replied, scratching his head as best he could with his hands bound. "They haven't done anything to me apart from throwing me into this cell."

"Glad to hear it," Sonic said. "We're gonna have to catch up later, though. Right now, its time for the Jailbreak Waltz!"

"Jailbreak?" Von Schlemmer parroted. "But you can't break out of here!"

"'Can't'?" Sonic repeated with a shocked expression his muzzle. "Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't know the meaning of the word 'can't'!"

The hero ran to the side of the cage and barely touched one of the bars before being flung back by an electric pulse. Tails and the professor rushed over to him as he lay on the ground, wisps of smoke rising from his singed fur. The hedge-fox sat up with some assistance and tried to persuade the bluebirds circling his head to leave him alone.

"Although," he burbled. "I am a fast learner."

"That's what I was trying to tell you!" the professor explained. "Robotnik was able to record you two with some kind of videohugenflugel. That's how he could contructamajig zis cagenthing."

"He musta put some kind of current through the metal," Tails pondered. "I wouldn't be surprised if he's done the same with the floor beneath the layer we're standing on too, in case we try going down."

Sonic shook his head and slowly picked himself up. "Are you saying that this cell is hedgehog-proof?"

Tails nodded. "Looks like it. And fox proof. Without any tools, I don't see how I could stop the current long enough for us to cut through the bars."

Sonic thought for a second. "Okay. This is just a minor setback." He paced up and down the metal floor, the soles of his sneakers squeaking as the rubber made contact with it. "There's a way outta here. I know it. Just give me some time to think."

After a few seconds of fast pacing, Sonic snapped his fingers together. "I've got it! Listen close, cuz it may be a long shot."

The fast-thinking, fast-moving hero gathered the three of them into a close huddle and began to whisper the specifics of his idea to his two companions.

xXxXx

Scratch pushed open the oak door to the fortress' prison chamber, allowing Grounder to wheel inside.. The shorter of the two carried a tray with three bowls on top of it. The two Badniks had purposely made sure to concoct the best worst meal that their limited cooking skills could muster, and judging from the viscous opaque mush that was clinging to the inside of each dish, they had certainly accomplished their goal.

"Hey, losers! Here's lunch," they chimed.

Grounder moved closer to the cage centered in the chamber and slid the tray beneath a small gap in the metal bars. Sonic took one of the bowls and gave it a tentative sniff. His nose felt as though it was about to drop off.

"Phew!" he gagged. "What is this stuff?"

"It's a special recipe, made just for you three," Scratch answered cheerfully.

"Aw, you shouldn't have." The now fox paused. "Seriously. You shouldn't have."

"Well, eat up, because you won't be doing it again for a long time," Grounder said with a smirk.

Sonic shook his head and smiled. "Nah, we're good, thanks. We were actually thinkin' of grabbing a bite when we escape."

"Oh, okay then," Scratch replied pleasantly. "Come on, Grounder, let's go back upstairs. Maybe Dr. Robotnik has something rotten for us to do."

The robot's non-identical twin nodded in consent and followed as Scratch opened the door to the dungeons. Sonic watched as the door closed behind them, nonchalantly lifting a hand to his face as if to check his nails.

"Five...four...three...two...one," he counted softly.

A mad pattering of footsteps across a concrete floor echoed throughout the room, gaining in volume before a distraught Scratch and Grounder burst into the room.

"'Escape'?!" the rooster spluttered. "You!? Escape?!"

"That's the idea," Sonic replied, shrugging his shoulders. "We got it all figured out as soon as we got here."

Grounder shook his head repeatedly, struggling to process this new information. "B-but," he stammered, desperation straining his voice chip. "This cell is supposed to be inescapable!"

"And I'm supposed to be a hedgehog," Sonic said, deadpan. "What's your point?"

"We want to know just how you intend to do it!" Scratch answered.

Sonic grunted and turned his back to them. "You guys think I'm stupid enough to tell you that? I'm insulted!"

"Ooh please," Grounder uttered with a pitiful squeal. "Please tell us! We don't want to get into trouble!"

"Pretty please?" Scratch attempted.

The hero of Mobius turned to look at the two Badniks. Both robotic life forms had their hands clasped together, pleading with him to tell them his scheme. He sighed with as much drama as he could muster.

"Okay, fine. I'll tell ya. But you've gotta promise to keep it to yourselves."

Scratch and Grounder crossed their fingers behind their backs. "Agreed," they replied simultaneously.

"Okay then," Sonic said with a nod. He beckoned them forward with his fingers. "Come closer to the cell."

The two Badniks leaned in, straining to block out any noise that could prevent them from hearing their enemy's top secret escape plan. Sonic checked to make sure that no one else was listening. He looked up, down, and all around before whispering into their audio receptors. "The cell's defective."

Scratch and Grounder blinked stupidly for a couple of seconds. "Come again?" the rooster asked.

"The cell has a couple of flaws in its design - the thing's defective," Sonic repeated.

"How so?" Grounder questioned.

"You know how these bars are supposed to be electrified?"

They both nodded.

"Well they ain't," Sonic continued. "That's how we're gonna escape. Won't take more than a Sonic spin to break through these things." He smiled and stood away from the two. "Heck, I could probably do it with my bare hands!"

Scratch snorted with disbelief. "You're bluffing. As if we're going to fall for something like that!"

"Yeah," Grounder agreed. "What do take us for?"

Sonic shook his head and raised his hands in defeat. "You don't believe me? Fine. I don't really care." He raised a finger and pointed it at them. "But, say I'm right. Are you really gonna allow us to escape when you had the chance to stop us? Cuz, you know, I'd really like to see how Robotnik would take that."

This simple mention of their master's name was enough for both Badniks' eyes to grow to the size of dinner plates. The cybernetic duo turned away from the prisoners and whispered frantically among themselves.

"What do we do, Scratch?" the tank-bot begged. "I don't want Dr. Robotnik to yell at me again!"

The rooster Badnik shook his head and closed his eyes. "Grounder, you are so gullible."

"Gulli-what-able?" the former's brother said, scratching his dome.

Scratch leaned in closer to prevent anyone else from hearing his next words. "Its so obvious. Sonic is trying to convince us to walk away by telling us that we'll get into trouble if we do walk away. He doesn't want us to check the cell."

"He doesn't?" Grounder questioned.

Winking, Scratch left their hushed debate and strolled over to the cell with Grounder following. "Nice try, hedgehog," he sneered with an oily smile. "We know that you were trying to convince us to walk away by trying to convince us to stay. Well, guess what? We're going to check your cell anyway!"

Sonic sighed and lowered his head, a ghost of a smile tracing his lips. "All right. You got me. You guys are way too smart for me."

Scratch and Grounder widened their smiles and grabbed hold of the cell bars. According to their prisoner, they were inactive.

So imagine their surprise when tens of thousands of electrical output coursed through their metallic limbs. The Badniks screeched with surprise as the energy passed through their bodies and back into the cell bars, conducting the electricity and creating a high voltage feedback loop. Sparks shot out of their sound receptors as hundreds of volts of electricity fed into both of their bodies, the two squealing as they received the shocks of their lives.

xXxXx

Agitated by the additional supply of energy from the robots' batteries, the generator in the basement that provided the charge to the cell bars crackled with excess power. No one was there to witness the turbine fizzle and grind to a halt, eliminating the current.

xXxXx

The trio of prisoners watched with amusement as the robot pair were blasted across the room, where they impacted hard against a brick wall. Both of them slid to the ground in a heap, leaving a pair of blackened Scratch and Grounder shaped imprints against the surface.

Sonic rubbed a finger beneath his nose. "I guess the shock of being right was too much for 'em."

"Literally," Tails agreed, screwing up his face in disgust at the invading reek of barbecued robot parts that penetrated his olfactory senses. "Great plan, Sonic! How did you know it was gonna work?"

"Come on, dude. This is Scratch and Grounder we're talkin' about here," Sonic answered. He walked over to Tails and plucked a blue quill from his back, flexing it against his finger to test its durability. He then walked over to the cell door and jammed the quill inside of the lock.

"Now, just a little jiggle here, and a little jiggle there," he murmured, twisting the quill inside of the keyhole. His efforts were rewarded with a loud clicking noise. He pushed against the door, which opened with no trouble. "And presto! Hey, Tails, help me grab the dumb-bots and drag them into the cell."

"Got it!" the hero in training responded. The three of them tugged upon the deactivated robots and managed to put them inside of the cage. Tails fished inside of Grounder's chest compartment, removing a key. He used it to unlock the padlocks on each of their chains, and then to lock the two Badniks inside of the cage in their place. "Boy, are they going to be in for a surprise when they wake up!" he said with a grin.

"Right now, though, we've gotta get down to business," Sonic said. He turned to Von Schlemmer. "Professor? Do you think you could reverse the Mind Scrambler upstairs so that it only affects the inside of the fortress?"

The shock-haired scientist considered the thought. "Maybe. If I could reconwhatsit the doodleloodle, it shouldn't be a problem. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. Just wanted to let our host in on the fun that we've been having," Sonic said with his patented smirk.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Tails exclaimed.

Sonic smiled, feeling that familiar rush of adrenaline that he couldn't live without. "Let's blaze some trails and spin some tails!"

Tails grabbed hold of Sonic and the professor's arms, spinning his feet like a wheel. "Okay, Sonic! Here we go!"

The fox-hog blasted off and crashed through the wooden door, reducing it to a large collection of matchsticks and splinters. Once again, it was time to do that hero thing they did so well.

**_END CHAPTER_**

**_AN: That's another one down. Not much left now of the remaining chapters. I hope you like it, thanks for reading, and thanks to those who reviewed/followed! I appreciate it :D_**


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